Here they consulted about strengthening their League with new Alliances and how to prepare for a necessary defence in case the Emperor would not allow the Treaty at Francfort They likewise debated how the Church 〈◊〉 might be best disposed of as also concerning the sending an Ambassy into England to molliâ—le the King upon the Point of the late Act of Parlament made in Relation to Religion they resolved likewise upon an Address to the French King to entreat him not to Persecute Innocent People for the sake of Opinion and also about dispatching away their Ambassadors to the Emperor as soon as they had any certainty of his being in Flanders for there was a report as if he were come thither already And because some of the Confederates were absent and others had no Authority to treat in several Cases they agreed to meet at Smalcald upon the First of March to conclude the remaining Business At this Convention the Burghers of Riga a City of Livonia were received into the League They had a difference with their Archbishop which was the Case of a great many Towns in Germany they were concerned in the Alliance no farther than to be defended by the common Advocates of the Protestants in the Chamber of Spire and upon this account they paid the Confederates a Thousand five hundred Crowns Henry Duke of Saxony Brother of George was admitted into the League Two Years without any Incumbrance charged upon him because his Fortune was but small but with this Proviso That whenever his Circumstances were enlarged he should submit to the same Condition with the rest Therefore since he had now such a noble Inheritance fallen to him they assessed him his proportion of the Charge in his Meeting which ended upon the Tenth of December The Princes were not here in person but sent their Agents The Elector had also lately sent John Dulcius and Francis Burcart his Vice-Chancellor into England to be present at the Solemnity of the King's Marriage with Ann of Cleve whose Sister Sibill was his own Dutchess as I observed in the Sixth Book These Ambassadors therefore having this occasion were enjoined at Arnstet to treat with the King in the Name of the Confederates as was lately mentioned The Emperor having received a safe Conduct set forward in November with a very small Train when he came to the Frontiers of France next to Spain he found Henry and Charles the King's Sons there who had Horses laid to meet him the sooner The Constable likewise who went a great way before the Princes was there to wait on him with a great Attendance of Nobility Being thus received he was conveyed through the middle of France and through the fairest Cities and when he came to Loches in the Dukedom of Berry the King met him who was scarce then recovered of a late Distemper From thence he travelled to Orleans and came to Paris upon the First of January which he entered being placed in the middle between the King's Sons the Constable carrying the Sword before them Neither was there any sort of festival Solemnity or Respect omitted with which its possible for the Mind of Man to be entertained There came thither also Cardinal Alexander Farnese the Pope's Legate who with Cardinal Bellay the Archbishop of the Town received the Emperor in Nostre-Dame His Imperial Majesty after a weeks stay went for Flanders the King accompanying him to St. Quintins and his Sons as far as Valenciennes a Town in Hanault The King at this time was almost sure of recovering Milan but it fell out quite otherwise as will be shown afterwards When the Emperor was with the French King they both of them sent a very splendid Ambassy to the Venetians the Emperor sent Alphonso Davalo Governor of the Dutchy of Milan and the French King Claude Hanebald Governor of Piedmont These Ambassadors made a long Harangue to the Senate to perswade them to concur with these Two powerful Monarchs who were now united and to bend all their Forces against the Turk But the Venetians after they had parted with the Ambassadors in a very respectful Manner concluded upon a full Consideration of the Case That it was absolutely their Interest to get the Turk with whom they had a Truce already throughly reconciled to them At last therefore they came to a Treaty with him and bought their Peace by the Delivery of Napoli di Romania and Malvasia into his Hands Some say the French though in publick they pressed the same Opinion with the Emperor's Ambassadors yet they gave them private Caution to take care of their State and not run themselves upon so great Danger to which they were more exposed than others Indeed the French King himself in a certain Apology of his chargeth the Emperor with ruining the State of Venice which he says he had supported by his Assistance and recovered by his Mediation The Venetian Ambassador Aloisius Baduarius who was sent to the Port to treat about a Peace with the Turk was commanded to offer all his other Conditions first reserving the Two Towns for the last Necessity But the Sultan who had the Resolution of the Senate betrayed to him reprimanded the Ambassador for not sufficiently explaining his Instructions and would not conclude anything except those Places were consigned to him Baduarius was amaz'd to see the Secrets of the State betrayed but since the thing was out he agreed to the Proposition though with regret which possibly he must have made at last of his own accord When he came home he gave an Account of the whole Matter The Senate being wonderfully surprized at it after a most diligent Enquiry apprehended some Persons and upon their being found guilty beheaded them One of the Criminals took Sanctuary as it were in the Bishop of Montpellier's Lodgings the French Ambassador upon which Officers are sent to search the House but being denied Entrance the Senate ordered some Engines to be brought out of the Arsenal to batter down the House But the French when they saw what Danger they were in delivered up the Person The Senate afterwards gave the King an Account of their Proceedings in a Letter that he might not think his Ambassador affronted When the Emperor was come into Flanders King Ferdinand took a Journey from Austria to meet him And afterwards the Protestant Ambassadors came thither as they had agreed it at Arnstet These Gentlemen after they had in the beginning of their Speech wished the Emperor all Happiness and congratulated his Return into Germany told him They heard how they had been blacken'd by their Adversaries who charged them with Obstinacy and an Aversion to the supreme Magistrate that they were of a restless and turbulent Spirit and delighted in disturbing the Commonwealth They had often wished they said for an Opportunity to purge themselves of these Crimes before his Majesty and were very glad it was now in their Power to do it And first since God was
Emperor could not make use of Albert's Service witout increasing the suspition which was then in Germany That this would be a very great affliction to him who desired nothing more than the Peace and Tranquillity of the Empire In the beginning of August Augustus the Brother of Maurice returned out of Denmark a few days after having consulted with his Council he caused his Subjects and amongst them those of Wirtemberg to take an Oath of Allegiance to himself and his Heirs-Male and that if he had no Male-Issue that then they should return under the Subjection of John Frederick and his Sons if he were obedient to the Emperor and observ'd the Treaties made some years since but if he did otherwise then they were to admit the Landgrave This being thus done he was proclaimed Electoral Prince and summoned a Diet of his States to meet the Twentieth of August The Seventeenth Day of August there was a very great Earthquake at Meissen in Misnia At the Day appointed the States assembled and a numerous Diet was opened at Leypsick Augustus proposed to their consideration in the first place Whether they would enter into his late Brother's League with King Ferdinand the Princes and Bishops and prosecute the War against Albert. Secondly What should be done in order to a Peace with John Frederick the late Elector because in the absence of Augustus that Prince had sent Ambassadors to the Great Men and demanded to be restored to the Electoral Dignity and to his Possessions which had been taken from him by the Emperor and conferred upon Maurice After Deliberation the States gave Answer That they were of Opinion that he should make a Peace with both Parties and that Albert the Elector of Brandenburg should be induced to enter into a Treaty of Peace and to that purpose there passed an Act of State though Ferdinand King of Bohemia very diligently sollicited them by Henry Plaw his Chancellor to continue in the late League To this Convention John Frederick sent another Ambassy and demanded to be restored to his Inheritance with some sharpness of Words and it was seconded also by those which were his Subjects in this Assembly but it had no effect Augustus pretending that he was not obliged to a Restitution and adhering to the Articles and Agreements made by John Frederick with the Emperor when he was taken Prisoner yet he said he would consent to a Continuance of the Claim and not reject all Treaty thereupon During this Convention of the States Henry Duke of Brunswick desired the Aid of Augustus Duke of Saxony against Albert who was then levying new Forces So soon as ever John Frederick heard of the Death of Maurice he sent John William one of his Sons to the Emperor into the Low Countries to sollicite his Restitution and almost at the same time the Nobility and States in the absence of Augustus sent Ambassadors to recommend him to the Emperor John Frederick at the same time also sent Ambassadors to Ferdinand and to the King of Denmark about the same Affair In the mean time the Bishop of Wurtzburg besieged Schweinfurt which had been Garrison'd by Albert as I have said above and the Forces of the Bishop of Bamberg and of the City of Norimberg when they had sometime besieged Collebach levied the Siege and joyned with the Count of Plaw who then lay before Hosie a Town belonging to the Elector of Brandenburg In this Month Nine Persons were condemned to be burnt at Lyons some of them having been imprison'd above a year There were Questions proposed to them one by one concerning the Presence of Christ's Body in the Eucharist Purgatory the Mass Auricular Confession the Ceremonies of the Church Invocation of the Virgin Mary and the Saints the Primacy of the Pope of Rome Free-Will Justification by Works concerning the Church the Power of the Bishops the Monastick Vows the Choice of Meats Extream Unction Confirmation and Images They all of them severally made the same Answers to every one of these Questions with great constancy alledging for what they said the Testimony of the Scriptures Whilst they were yet in Prison they comforted one another by their Letters and they sent others to their Friends and to the Neighbour-Churches wherein they gave an Account of what had happened One of these Prisoners Lewis Marsac a Souldier reciting several Passages out of the Sacred Scriptures the Inquisitors who examin'd him asked him if it were fit for him to read the Scriptures and how he knew these things were in the Gospels The King's Lieutenant also said there were only two Evangelists Matthew and John the other two and Paul pick'd up a few Scraps or ends of the Story and patch'd them together He said also That if the Doctors of the Church had not given Authority to the Writings of St. Paul he should not have regarded his Epistles more than he did Aesop's Fables When on the other side Marsac replied That there were very excellent Testimonies in the Scriptures concerning the Vocation and Apostleship of St. Paul especially in the 1st Chapter of the Epistle to the Galatians He replied That is nothing to the purpose for he bears witness to himself The Executioner had order to put an halter about the Neck of each of the Prisoners when they were carried to Execution but Marsac having served the Crown as a Souldier the Judges had ordered he should be led without that Mark of Disgrace But Marsac turning to the principal Judge said Is their Cause better than mine I Pray Sir why do you not bestow the same Chain upon me Why should not I too be admitted into the Fellowship of this Noble and Illustrious Order of Knights Alluding to the Custom used by Princes who to honour and exalt their particular Friends admit them into their Order as they call it and give them a Chain or Collar of Gold as an honourable Badge of it Five of these who were Frenchmen had been Students in the University of Lausanne where they had been maintained by the Canton of Bern in which that City stands and when they heard these Students were taken up and in great danger the Canton sent a Memorial to the King and desired these Students might be returned to them But the King disappointed them in this pretending that by Law he could not do so It is thought the Cardinal of Tournon blew the Coles in this Affair We have already spoken of the Death of that Illustrious Prince Edward the Sixth King of England He had before been consumptive and in the beginning of January he fell sick His Disease increasing he became very sollicitous for his Kingdom and the State of Religion and began to consult his more intimate Friends Who was the fittest Person to suceed him For though his Father had by his last Testament made Mary and Elizabeth his two Sisters his Heirs as we have above related yet because now he was come to somewhat a more advanced Age
him delivered unto his Holiness which he promised to do accordingly That therefore if he had any Instructions in relation thereunto they prayed him to declare them that so they might have surer Grounds to proceed on That the Turkish Affairs were indeed such as he had described them to be which was no small Grief unto them But that that Difficult and most Important War concerned not the Empire alone but also all the Kings and Princes of Christendom for that unless they would be at Peace among themselves and contribute their Aid and Assistances no lasting Measures could be taken That nevertheless since the Turk was making vast Preparations both by Sea and Land they desired also to know his Judgment as to that matter Hereunto the Legate replyed That whether or not any Method for composing the Differences of Religion had been proposed by them or delivered to the Pope and Colledge of Cardinals he knew nothing at all of it That his Holiness was in a Disposition of doing any thing that was convenient and had given him full Power and Commission to act but that it belonged to them who knew the Men and the Customs and Condition of the Country to find out a Way that might lead to the desired End. That in the Dyet of Wormes the Emperour with their unanimous Consent had made and published a Decree which was renewed again last Year and that then it was judged convenient that it should take place all over Germany but that nevertheless some had obeyed it and some not That now he was ignorant of the Reason of that and why there should be so great a Diversity and Incongruity in the Empire That therefore it was his Opinion That before any thing should be decreed they would consider how it was to be executed That he was not come thither to blow the Coals of Strife and Dissention as some said but that all the Popes Thoughts and his tended to Unity Peace and Concord that those who had erred and gone astray might be reduced into the right way and that the Decrees of Councils and the Edicts of the Emperour and States might be observed That as to their Demands whether they were made to be sent to Rome or not he could not tell That there had been only three Copies of them brought privately to Rome whereof one had fallen into his Hands but that the Pope and Colledge of Cardinals could not be persuaded that they had been framed by the Princes but thought that some private Persons rather had published them in hatred to the Court of Rome And that he had no Instructions as to that Particular That however he was not to be so understood as if he had not full Power and Commission to act in that Affair but that there were many things in these Demands which did both derogate from the Pope's Authority and savoured also of Heresie which he could not meddle in But that for those other Matters which did not intrench upon the Pope and were grounded on Justice he did not refuse to treat of them That nevertheless he thought That what they had to say to the Pope might have been more modestly propounded That the Spaniards had lately done so who having sent Ambassadours to Rome respectfully represented their Grievances But that to Print and disperse them among the People seemed to him to be a little too much though there was no Doubt to be made but that the Pope would do any thing for the sake of Germany That his Holiness was not ignorant neither of the great Power of the Turk and of his Preparations in this time of War and thought that Peace and Concord among Christian Princes was at present absolutely necessary for effecting whereof he would use his utmost Endeavours That he had also great Summs of Money in Readiness and made it his Business to raise more which he designed wholly for this War but that it was their Part because of the Neighbourhood of Hungary to assist the young Prince who was related to them both in Blood and Affinity That the Pope would also supply him with Money and had laboured from his first Entry into the Pontificate that having made Peace betwixt the Emperour the Kings of England and France the Turkish War might be prosecuted with united Forces That as the chief Pastor he made Peace his chief Care and Study but that if the Sheep would not follow the Voice of the Shepherd he could do no more That for the same Cause he had been sent Legate into Germany and that if all the Pains he had taken must be in vain his Holiness and he both must bear it patiently and commit the whole matter to God's Providence In Switzerland the Animosities and Clashings about Religion increased daily and the rest of the Cantons by their Ambassadours made their Lamentation to those of Zurich That in times past all things were Quiet and no Contention about Religion but that now some rash hot-headeded Men had troubled that lovely Peace and Tranquility both of Church and State and sowed among them the Seeds of Discord That it had been well done to have remedied this growing Evil in the beginning and in imitation of their Ancestors vindicated the Glory and Honour of Almighty God the Virgin Mary and other Saints and therein have spent their Lives and Fortunes and that now also the State of the Times required the same chiefly at their Hands for that otherwise the Disorder would bring upon them all unavoidable Ruine besides the Loss of their own Souls That the Fruits of Luther's new Doctrine began now sufficiently to appear That the Rable and Mobile would hardly now be restrained That they behaved themselves Insolently and Sawcily grew Stubborn and Unruly and seemed ripe for Rebellion as they had plainly enough intimated of late That the Contagion of this Evil had been conveighed to them by means of Zuinglius and Leo Jude who so taught the Word of God which ought to bring Peace and Concord with it and interpreted it according to their own Fancy that they opened all ways to Broils and Dissentions And that though they were not certain what their Doctrin was yet they had daily Experience of the Abuses which attended it That on Days prohibited by the Church Men did eat Flesh and Egs without any distinction That Priests and the Religious of both Sexes breaking their Vows forsook their Profession and Orders and married That the Service and Worship of God was wholly laid aside That there was no more Singing nor Prayers now in Churches Priests were Dishonoured Monasteries Dissolved Confession and Penance neglected so that some without any regard to these stood not in awe to come and receive the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper That Mass was railed at the Virgin Mary and other Saints reviled Pictures and Images pulled down torn and broken no Reverence nor Honour shewn to the Sacraments of the Church and that Licentiousness and Impurity was now grown
for establishing Religion and maintaining Peace and Quietness it was necessary there should be a lawful General or Provincial Council of Germany held within a Year And that no Delay nor Impediment might intervene That Ambassadours should be sent to the Emperour to pray him That he would look upon the Miserable and Tumultuous State of the Empire and come into Germany as soon as he could and procure a Council As to Religion and the Edict of Wormes it was concluded That in the mean while until either a General or National Council might be had all should so behave themselves in their several Provinces as that they might be able to render an Account of their Doings both to God and the Emperour Before the passing of that Decree the Elector of Saxony and Landgrave sent for the Deputies of Strasburg Norimberg and Ausburg and told them That because they perceived their Religion was dear unto them and that it plainly appeared what the Bishops and Papists drove at they were thinking Whether a League and Association might not be made for mutual Assistance in case any of them should be in Danger for their Religion and because they conceived good Hopes of those of Frankford and Vlm they did not refuse to communicate also with them To this the Deputies made answer That they had no Instructions from their Principals as to that but that they would carefully acquaint them therewith The Duke of Saxony had two Divines with him George Spalatine and John Islebe and the Landgrave had also brought his Preachers with him the rest of the Princes requested That they might not preach to prevent Disturbances but that was in vain Ferdinand also before the Decree was made having sent for the Deputies of all the Cities and represented to them the Kindness that he and his Predecessors of the House of Austria had always had for them exhorted them to be obedient to the Emperour and not to listen to the Counsels and Persuasions of some that would pervert them It was also decreed That Aid should be sent to the King of Hungary But by that time the Dyet was dissolved which was about the latter end of August the Turk having already entred Hungary overcame King Lewis in Battle who was also slain as he fled in the Pursuit All the Princes Electors except Brandenburg were present at the Dyet of Spire This Summer the Emperour married the Infanta Isabel Daughter to King Emanuel of Portugal and Sister to King John who succeeded to his Father At the same time the Dyet was held at Spire the twelve Cantons of the Switzers kept a Conference and Disputation at Baden thither came the chief Catholick Divines as Faber Eckius Munner and the Bishops of Constance Basil Coyre and Lausanne under whose Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction these Cantons were sent their Deputies Theses were published there which Eckius very confidently defended As that the real Body and Blood of Christ is present in the Eucharist That it is really offered for the Quick and the Dead That the Virgin Mary and the rest of the Saints are to be prayed to as Intercessours That the Images of Saints were not to be removed That there is a Fire of Purgatory after this Life Oecolampadius and some others impugned them Zuinglius was absent and wrote to the Switzers the Reasons why he did not come but confuted Eckius his Theses in Writing John Faber who was highly esteemed by the Bishop of Constance bearing great hatred to Zuinglius is reported to have put the Switzers upon this Match of Disputation and persuaded seven Cantons at first to which all the rest assented afterwards except Zurich to whom the rest sent both Letters and Messengers praying them That against the day appointed they would send thither their Deputies and especially Zuinglius who was one of the chief Men they wanted and to whom they gave a Safe-Conduct But he having some Reasons to move him and chiefly That he would not trust his Life with those of Lucerne Vri Switz Vnderwald and Zug besides his being forbidden by the Senate to go thither excepted against the Place appointed for the Dispute but was satisfied with Zurich Berne or San-Gall The Issue of the whole Debate was That all should continue in the Religion which hitherto they had observed and admit of no new Doctrins within their Territories but submit to the Authority of a Council This was done about the latter end of June But before this the Bishop of Constance had caused one John Huglie a Priest to be burnt at Merspurg because he disliked some things in the Popish Doctrin King Lewis being thus unfortunately killed Ferdinand contended That the Kingdom was his by Agreement but he had a Competitour John Sepsy Vaivode of Transilvania This competition bred a division among the Nobility and States that broke out into a War which proved fatal to Germany and the neighbouring People For the Emperour of the Turks afterwards took the Vaivode into his Protection and Buda being delivered up made him a King on condition That he should be Feudatary and hold of him The French King being returned home out of Spain where he left his two young Sons Francis and Henry Hostages gave it out That the Conditions of Peace which he had agreed unto were Unjust and that he would not stand to them After Ambassadours had been therefore sent to and fro the Pope and Venetians made a League with him whereof the chief Articles were That for the Defence and Security of Italy they should maintain an Army of thirty thousand Foot and about six thousand Horse That they should provide a Fleet of eight and twenty Galleys with Tenders That the Enemy being defeated in Lumbardy and Italy they should attack the Kingdom of Naples by Sea and Land That being conquered it should be annexed to the Patrimony of S. Peter and belong to the Church yet so as the King of France who pretended a Title thereunto should have seventy five thousand Crowns yearly paid out of it That the Honour and Dignity of the Family of Medices should be maintained in the State of Florence That the French King should give up the Dutchy of Milan to Francis Sforza whom the Imperialists had besieged in the Castle of Milan and forced to surrender and whom also he promised to assist with his own Aid and Switz-Forces and to give him a Wife of the Blood-Royal of France but upon this Condition That he should pay him fifty thousand Crowns yearly and maintain his Brother Maximilian who was Prisoner in France A little after Pope Clement wrote to the Emperour reckoning up the good Offices that he had done him That for his sake he had refused Advantagious Conditions offered him by the French King That when the King was taken he had upon a certain Condition advanced an hundred thousand Crowns to the Commanders of his Army That he had several times discovered unto him the Counsels
scarce have been possible to have reduced you to Concord And when so many other Princes have made a defection from the Church and that Enemy of Mankind has invented such variety of Stratagems against you yet God in his divine Goodness has look'd upon you and defeated the devices and attempts of the Devil By which he has given us a certain Token not only of his Goodness and Clemency towards you but also of his Intentions to use your Services and to unite you two to his Vicar on Earth for the taking away these destructive Contentions and restoring a general Peace both as to Church and State. These and many other such Arguments did that Cardinal offer to the Consideration of these Princes threatning them also with the Wrath and Vengeance of God if they did not desist and suffer their People which was grievously Harrassed and impoverished to recover Now though these Arguments did not prevail then yet when he went into England he went on with his design of reconciling them and at last he prevailed so far as to dispose both the Emperor and King of France to send their Ambassadors to treat of a Peace The Queen of England who was the Mediator in this Treaty appointed a place betwen Calais Ardee and Graveling three Towns belonging to these three Princes in the Center of which she chose out a dry and convenient place in the middle of a Plain and having moted the same she caused four houses to be built which though not intended for any long duration were yet made very convenient and Beautiful In this place the Ambassadors met the twenty third of May. There met for the Emperor amongst others the Bishop of Arras for the King of France the Cardinal of Lorrain and the Constable and for the English as Mediators were present Cardinal Pool the Earl of Arundel and the Lord Paget A Rumour spread it self throughout Christendom which caused great Expectations and various Judgments in the Minds of Men and especially in those who were best acquainted with the Controversies of these Times for that in this Treaty the Dukedoms of Milan and Burgundy Savoy Piedmont Corsica Navarr Lorrain and Luxemburg and the Cities of Toul Verdun and Metz were to be contended for and setled The Affair being much and long debated and the Mediating English insisting to have some of these things referred to the determination of a Council nothing at last was done but the Treaty was broke up The tenth of June Ferdinand and the States of Germany wrote a Letter to the Emperor wherein they desired him that in this Treaty he would particularly concern himself for the restitution of those Places which the King of France had taken from the Empire When therefore the Meeting was ended without any Effect the Emperor the twenty fifth of June wrote to the Diet to this Purpose It is very grateful to me to see you thus affected with the Calamities of those who have been so much afflicted by the publick Enemy of the Empire and of me and truely their Cause was most dear to me and I accordingly before I received your Letter had commanded my principal Ambassadors who were to attend this Treaty that they should persist in the restitution of these places to their former State with the utmost diligence and they should not remit any thing as to that Article And although I for my part having opened all the ways I could to a Peace thought that the King of France would for the sake of Peace not have been stubborn and refractory yet after all the Congress is for the present broke up without any good Effect Yet however that I may consult the good of Christendom I will not refuse to make a Peace if any tollerable Conditions are offered and when time serves I will do my endeavour to have those places restored to the Empire and to put them for the future into a better Condition than they were before The Emperor had a little before sent the Duke de Alva into Milan that he might take care of the War there as his General Ferdinand Gonzaga having obtained a release from that Post and being about this time gone from Flanders to live privately at Home There was also a strong Report which prevailed much about this time that Mary Queen of England was with Child About this time also the Persecution in England grew sharper Bradford who was condemned to be burnt in the manner I have set down in the end of my twenty fifth Book and was afterwards respited and kept in Prison was burnt in July Frederick the eldest Son of John Frederick Duke and Elector of Saxony Married Agnes the Daughter of the Landgrave of Hesse and which had been the Wife of Maurice the last Elector of Saxony Many of the neighbouring Princes met on the occasion of this Marriage and appointed a second Meeting at Naumburg to consult of their affairs About the same time Joan the Mother of the Emperor died and Ferdinand her second Son celebrated her Obsequies at Ausburg About the same time there was a tumult raised at Geneva in the night time by some of the Senators of that City who designed by this means to make themselves and their Party Masters of that Commonwealth these Men had also a great aversion for John Calvin who had fled thither on the account of the Persecâ—tions in France and now the driving him out of this City was one of the principal Motives of this Insurrection In the night time there was a sudden Commotion made in several parts of the City and the Cry was The French are in Arms and the City is betrayed The French in the mean time keeping within their Houses and so the design miscarried and many of them who were in this leud Conspiracy were Executed and some others were forced to fly for the safety of their Lives The reason why they would have had the French Banished out of the City was because many of the French Fugitives and Sojourners in the City had been lately taken into the number of the Citizens by which they believed their Party was weakned and the other encreased The Turkish Fleet came this Year into the Tyrrhenian Sea as it had done several years before and much terrified Tuscany That therefore there might be the less dammage done by this Navy the Marquess di Marignano General of the Emperors Forces about the thirteenth of June suddenly set upon Porto Ercole which was then in the Hands of the French and by the Valour of his Soldiers took the Castle and slew all the French that were there in Garrison after this the Turks too besieged Piombino but receiving great Losses in their Attacks and not being likely ever to take it they left that place and attempted the Island of Elba belonging to the Duke of Florence but to no purpose neither About this time there were some Civil Laws published by the King of France at
nature of them being changed they should be turned into Civil or Lay-Fees It is apparent to us that a part of the Empire depends upon and is founded in these Sees which we do not in the least desire should be diminished or imbezelled but by all means we would have them preserved It would have been to our great satisfaction if this question had never been moved but that we might have pursued the decrees of the former years made at Norimburg Ratisbonne and Spire which include all them that imbrace the Augustan Confession And at first the Legates of the three Electoral Archbishops did also wisely consider this but when some others had started and exagitated this Doubt then they joyned with them They who first moved this question had perhaps some reason for it but what has since followed is apparent For if this Rub had not been cast in our way we had long e're this been at our desired End and all things in our Opinions had been determined but then there are many grave and pious Reasons why we should not admit that Condition For any Man may see what a contempt and detriment it will be to our Religion if we suffer those that imbrace it to be put out of their Places deprived of all Dignity and to be treated as Hereticks we will now in silence pass over the first Institution of Colleges or Chapters and the Corruptions which by degrees crept into them But nevertheless we are of Opinion that very much of that Institution is no way repugnant to our Religion And for us to consent that no Bishop that imbrace our Religion which we profess as true and Christian should continue in his Station is a great Wickedness because by this act we should condemn it as impious and unworthy of the order of Priesthood whose duty it is to promote and exercise it Wherefore great Sir we humbly beseech your Majesty to consider this seriously and according to the Power given you by the Emperor to cause this Clause to be struck out and omitted But he answered that no more could be granted and that they had obtained what they could never gain before in the many years they had endeavoured for it That they should have some Consideration for him for otherwise the Diet should be ended and nothing done which if it happened and any Inconvenience ensued there was no reason the Blame should fall either upon the Emperor or him who had so sweetly and patiently Treated of this Affair and attended upon it thus long but could now stay no longer Therefore he would give them ten days more that in that time they might send home to their Princes that so he might have a positive Answer When that day came they having shewn their utmost Diligence that in all other things the good of Religion might be promoted and considering that it belonged to the Emperor and King and not to them to limit this Article the King also on his side remitting some things as shall be said hereafter they upon these Considerations gave their Consent So the twenty fifth of September the Decree was publickly read according to the Custom which is as followeth Neither the Emperor nor Ferdinand King of the Romansâ— nor any of the other Princes or States in the Empire shall in any manner whatsoever hurt or injure any Man for the Confession of the Augustan Doctrine Religion and Faith nor shall they by Command or by any other way whatsoever force any Man to forsake his Religion Ceremonies or Laws which he has already instituted within his Dominions or which those of the Augustan Confession shall hereafter Institute nor shall the said Emperor King or Princes contemn the same but shall suffer them freely to profess this Religion and also quietly to enjoy their Goods Estates Tolls Possessions and Rights and this Controversy in Religion shall not be attempted to be Composed by any other than by Pious Friendly and quiet ways Those of the Augustan Confession shall behave themselves in the same manner towards the Emperor King Ferdinand and all the other Princes and States which joyn in the ancient Religion as well Ecclesiastical as Civil and towards all others of the Clergy and their Colleges whither soever they shall travel to dwell provided they exercise their Ministries in manner and form following All which shall be suffered freely to enjoy their Religion Ceremonies Laws Possessions Tolls and all other their Rights and shall not in any way be hindred in the peaceable enjoyment of the same and if any Difference or Suit shall arise it shall every where be tried and determined by the Laws and Customs of the Empire and those that embrace neither of these Religions shall not be included in this Peace If any Archbishop Bishop or Prelate or other Clergy-Man shall make a defection from the ancient Religion he shall presently relinquish his Bishoprick Diocess or Benefice and shall lose all those Fruits he should otherwise have received from the same which yet shall not in any wise tend to the Infamy of the said Person And it shall thenceforth be lawful and free for the Chapter or those to whom the Eâ—ection shall belong by Law or Custom to elect and constitute another in his Place who is of the ancient Religion whereby the right of Institution Election Presentation and Confirmation together with the peaceable Possession of all the Goods thereunto belonging may be fully preserved to them Yet nothing shall hereby be taken to derogate from the intended Reconciliation above-mentioned And because some Princes of the Empire and other States or their Ancestors have assumed some Ecclesiastical Revenues Districts Chapters or Colleges of Monks and other such Church Revenues and have assigned them to the use of their Ministers to Schools and to other good uses they shall not on this account be troubled nor brought in question but such Goods which do not belong to any of the other States of the Empire or to other Persons who are Subject to the Empire the Possession of which was not at the time of the Treaty of Passaw nor since in the possession of Ecclesiastick Person shall from henceforth continue as they now are and be comprehended in this Peace and it shall not be Lawful for the Judges of the Imperial Chamber upon the account of these things thus taken and alienated to hear or determine any thing against the said Princes and States The Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction shall not be exercised or take place against those of the Augustan Confession their Religion Faith Rights Laws and Ecclesiastical Ministry But shall be suspended and stopped and shall not give them the least disturbance till the difference in Religion be entirely taken away But in all other things which do not concern the said Religion Ceremonies Laws and Ministry it shall be of the same force and be exercised according to the ancient Laws and Customs And all the Revenues Tolls and Rights belonging to the Clergy shall
imaginable That the Town had been taken but the Castle still held out but much oppressed by the Cannon of the Enemy That he had received Accounts by Letters and Messengers That the Bassa of Bosnia was assembling great Forces to in vade Sclavonia That the Beglerbeg of Greece was drawing great Forces together at Sophia and then designed to come forward and that Solyman himself would come into Hungary in Autumn to Winter there or at least that he would be there early in the Spring with a vast Army to take Vienna That in a time of so great distress he was not at leisure nor durst he leave his Provinces but was wholly taken up in providing for the Defence and Security of them and because he would not have the Dyet held any longer in suspence which was contrary to the Interest of the Empire he had committed the management of it to the Duke of Bavaria that he might begin it and preside till he could come thither himself That he had sent a splendid Ambassy to treat of a Peace or a Truce three years since with Solyman and his Ambassadors were detained at Constantinople and although a Truce had been concluded till the Ambassador should return home yet the Turk had broke his Faith and had taken many Towns and Castles in the Borders of his Kingdom of Hungary and seeing he was now battering Sigeth it was not reasonable to expecta firm and lasting Peace upon tolerable Conditions This being the state of things he said a great and terrible Danger was threatned thereby not only to the Remainder of the Kingdom of Hungary but to Austria and all Germany and therefore it was needful to come presently to a Resolution of sending Succours and levying money for the defence of it which might be deposited in certain Places to be issu'd out by publick Treasurers as need should require That the King had sollicited other Princes to send Supplies and that he was resolv'd to spare no Treasures and to hazard his own Person and his Sons But then his Hereditary Countries being exhausted by a War which had lasted so many years were not now able to grapple with so formidable an Enemy alone but it was absolutely needful the Empire should assist them and that speedily And seeing in the last Dyet it was resolved That the composing the Differences of Religion should be considered in this he earnestly exhorted them to consider whether it was possible to be done and by what way They were to consider also of the Money and of the establishing the Peace of the Empire But then the Turkish War ought not to be postpon'd or delay'd but to be one of their first and most important Considerations that so the present and impending Danger might be averted The 15th day of September the Emperour having a fair Wind and a promising Season set Sail with a good Fleet for Spain and took along with him as his Companions in this Voyage Mary Queen-Dowager of Hungary and Leonora Queen-Dowager of France his Sisters But before his departure he had resigned to his Son Philip the Government of the Low-Countries and to his Brother King Ferdinand the Empire of Germany to which purpose he had sent a Letter to the Electors wherein he desired they would accept of him and acknowledge and obey him as Emperour of Germany The last day of October John Sleidan I. V. L. a Person worthy of great Commendations on the account of the rare Endowments of his Mind and his great Learning died at Strasburg and was honourably buried FINIS A CONTINUATION OF THE HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION To the End of the COUNCIL OF TRENT In the Year 1563. Collected and Written by E. B. Esq LONDON Printed in the Year MDCLXXXIX A CONTINUATION OF THE HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION BOOK I. The CONTENTS The Introduction The Revolt of Transylvania The Siege and brave Defence of Sigeth a Town in Hungary Charles V resigns the Empire He goes to Spain John Sleidan's Death and Character Paul III a Furious Prince The War between him and King Philip in Italy The Peace between them The Affairs of England The Dyet of Ratisbonne The Death of Ignatius Loyola the Founder of the Order of Jesuites And of Albert Marquess of Brandenburg The unsuccessful Conference at Wormds between the Romish and Protestant Divines The War between France and Spain The Siege Battle and Taking of S. Quintin Charles V his Letter to his Son. The Spanish Army disperse and the French increase A Persecution in France The Siege and Loss of Calais The Situation and Form of that Town Guines taken A Turkish Fleet land in many Places in Italy and carry many into Captivity The Dauphin Married to Mary Queen of Scotland The first Overtures for a Peace between the Kings of France and Spain Andelot Marshal of France ruined by the Arts of the Duke of Guise Thionville Besieged and Taken by the French. The Defeat of the French near Graveling An unsuccessful Expedition of the English against France The Treaty of Cambray began The Parliament of England meet and Queen Mary Dies The German Affairs the Death and Character of Charles V. The Succession of Queen Elizabeth The Scotch Affairs and the first setling of the Reformation in that Kingdom IT was the Misfortune of this Great Man John Sleidan to die in that nick of Time when the Fates of the two contending Religions and of all Christendom were just upon the setling It is true he lived to see the Augustane Confession setled in the Dyet of Ausburg and perhaps he might hear of the Resignation of the Empire by Charles V to his Brother Ferdinand but then Death surprized him before he could give any account of it for with it he designed to have begun the next Book in all probability and to have filled up this with some other Accidents such as a large account of the Revolt of Transylvania and the Siege of Sigeth would have afforded him But then had he lived till the Year 1563 he should have seen the Death of Queen Mary Henry II of France and Charles V and the setling of the Roman Catholick Religion by the Determination of the Council of Trent contrary to the Expectation of all Men which seems to be the first Period of the Reformation and absolutely necessary to give the Reader a clear Prospect and full View of the first Joynt of this great Revolution I have therefore persuaded the Stationer to add a Suppliment to this Version for that purpose and because I am a Member of the Religion by Law established and not willing to offend them of the other Persuasions I resolve to advance nothing in it but from Authors who lived and dyed in the Communion of the Church of Rome shewing the matter of Fact with great Brevity and making few or no Reflections of my own That so the Reader may be left entirely to himself to think what he Please and God shall direct him I will
mean time the Duke de Alva withdrew his Army to the Town of Colonna The Duke of Florence had now obtained what he desired by gaining the State of Sienna the Duke of Guise was gone for France the Pope's Forces were sufficiently baffled and his Towns lay at the Mercy of the Enemy his Treasures were spent and the Venetians had absolutely refused to assist him So that the Pope was now forced to come to a Treaty of Peace in good earnest and it was well he had the King of Spain and the Duke de Alva to treat with considering in what State his Affairs were The Peace was however agreed at last upon these Terms I. That the Duke de Alva in the Name of his Master should beg the Pope's Pardon and it should be granted II. That the Pope should renounce the Amity with France III. That the King of Spain should restore to the Pope one hundred Towns and Castles he had taken in this War the same being dismantled first and that they should restore those Estates they had seized to the proper owners IV. That both Parties should remit all Wrongs Injuries and Losses Sustained during the War and Pardon all that had taken Arms on either Side And that Paliano should be put into the Hands of Bernardo Carbone a Kinsman of the Caraffa's to be kept by him for both Parties with a Garrison of eight hundred Men till they should otherwise dispose of it by mutual Consent These Articles were publickly signed at Cava the fourteenth of September but there was a private Article signed the same Day That John Caraffa should have such a Recompence for Paliano as should be adjudged an Equivalent by the Senate of Venice who were the Arbitrators in this Treaty The Place meant was Rossano a Populous and Rich City in the Kingdom of Naples which was to be granted to him by the King of Spain with the Title of a Principality which he might transfer to whom he pleased if not an Enemy of the King of Spain's That upon the delivery of this Grant and Place Paliano should be dismantled and Caraffa should yield up all his Right in it to the King of Spain which he also might assign to whom he pleased if he were not Excommunicated or the Pope's sworn Enemy which was added to exclude Mark Anthony Colonna and was easily granted by the Duke de Alva in complyance with the Morose and Inexorable Humour they are Thuanus's Words of the Old Gentleman who would soon die and then the King might dispose of Paliano as he thought fit The Duke de Alva in a short time after went to Rome and on his Knees begged the Pope's Pardon with as much Humility as could have been wished And the Pope absolved him and his Master with as much Haughtiness as ever need to have been used The great Desire I had to lay all this Italian War together has made me omit some things that happened in the former Year among which one was the Death of Francis Venero Duke of Venice to whom succeed Laurentius Prioli a Learned Wise Eloquent and Magnificent Gentleman so that for many Years after his Death the Venetians regretted the Loss of him and wished for such another In England the Persecution was so far from extirpating the Reformation that it made it spread but the Quarrels at Frankford among our English Exiles about the Liturgy had a more Pestilent Influence upon that Religion then and in after Times than the former had The Queen in the mean time was very busie in raising the Religious Houses and had nothing to disgust her till the breaking off of the Truce between her Husband and the King of France which very much afflicted her every way The Duke of Guise shipped his Men at Civita Vechia for France and himself took Post-Horses and went by Land. The Cardinal of Caraffa went soon after the Pope's Nuntio to King Philip and Augustino Trivultio to the King of France to procure a Peace between those two Potent Princes who had been engaged in this War by the Pope and his Relations In the Interim the Duke of Ferrara was exposed to the Resentment of King Philip and had certainly been ruined if the Prudence of Cosmo Duke of Florence had not prevented it First by sending slow and small Supplies against the Duke of Ferrara and then by maintaining and fomenting Differences between the Spanish Commanders at last by representing to the Duke de Alva who visited him at Legorn That the King of Spain had no other way of setling his Affairs in Italy than by quieting those Commotions his just Resentment against the Duke of Ferrara had raised That all Italy being weary of Wars promised themselves a Peace would follow upon the Victory of that Prince but now if he should go on to make one War the cause of another he must expect to lose their Affections and that mere Desparation would enforce them to take other Measures and seek new Allies and new Counsels This convinced that Duke That it was his Master's Interest to make a Peace with Ferrara because then there would be neither Prince nor Commonwealth in Italy that would have any dependence upon France Our Author John Sleidan has only given us the Letter or Speech which began the Dyet at Ratisbonne but dyed before he could give us any account of the Transactions there After they had consulted of those things which related to the State and the Turkish War there arose some debate concerning the composing the Differences of Religion And here it was first agreed That all that had been done in the Treaty of Passaw and the Dyet of Ausburg concerning the Peace of Religion should remain firm and immoveable But then those of the Augustane Confession presented to King Ferdinand by their Deputies a Protestation in Writing to this purpose That King Ferdinand had performed a most useful Office for the good of Christendom by setling a Peace in the Matters of Religion between the Princes and the States of Germany But then he had annexed a Limitation which was very Grievous That no Archbishop Bishop Abbat or other Ecclesiastical Person should receive the Augustane Confession but that he should resign his Office and be deprived of the Revenues thereunto belonging That those of the Augustane Confession did not consent to this Limitation nor can they now consent to it because this was a denying them the Benefit of imbracing the Saving and True Doctrin of the Gospel by which not only the Bishops but their Subjects too were driven out of the Kingdom of God which was not fit to be done Besides it was a Reproach to their Religion to suffer those who should imbrace the Augustane Confession to be judged unworthy of the Sacred Ministery And therefore they could not approve this Restriction in the Dyet of Ausburg without doing Injury to the Glory of God and their own Consciences neither can they now consent to it
fit to receive Supplies and a Place that might serve the French Companies for a Refuge if they should happen to be reduced to any great streight This was done about September as appears by a Letter of the Nobility about it in that Month. The Regent's Reputation was by this time at so low an Ebb that nothing she said was believed and all she offered suspected About this time M. Pelleuce Bishop of Amiens afterwards Bishop of Sens arrived at Leith attended by three Doctors of the Sorbon Furmer Brochet and Feretier he pretended he came to dispute with the Preachers of the Congregation and he sent to some of the Nobility residing then at Edinburg desiring a Hearing But for fear their Arguments might not prove so effectual as was expected Le Broche a French Knight came over at the same time with two thousand Foot to reinforce their Sylogisms The Congregation-Nobility reject however their armed Logick and would have nothing to do with them The Eighteenth of October the Lords assembled their Forces at Edinburg and the Regent with the Bishop of St. Andrews Glasgow Dunkeld and the Lord Seaton the same day entred Leith And some Messages having pass'd betwixt them they proceeded so far at last as to suspend the Queen-Regent's Commission discharging her of all Authority till the next Parliament prohibiting the Officers to serve under her or by colour of her Authority to exercise their Offices from thenceforth This Decree bears Date the Twenty third of October The Twenty fifth they summoned the Town of Leith commanding all Scots and Frenchmen to depart within twelve hours But failing in this Attempt the Regent took Edinburg and restored the Mass there and all those of the contrary Religion were forced to flee into England or where they could find shelter Hereupon the Queen sent for more Forces and the Marquis d' Elboeuf was sent from Diep with eighteen Ensigns of Horse which were dispersed at Sea by Tempest so that he arrived not at Leith before the Spring of the next year The Lords retired first to Sterling and then to Glasgow where they reform'd all things after their usual manner and in the mean time they sent William Maitland and Robert Melvil to Queen Elizabeth where at last they obtained what they designed in the manner I have express'd The French hearing this resolved to suppress the Lords before the English should come up to their Assistance and thereupon began to waste and spoil the Country to Sterling but though they met with little Resistance yet they could not attain their End. In February an Agreement was made between the English and the Scotch Commissioners sent by the Lords for the Preservation of the Scotch Liberties and Freedoms from a French Conquest and for the Expulsion of the French Forces out of Scotland the Articles of which were Sign'd the Twenty seventh of that Month. About this time the English Fleet under Captain Winter came up and took all the French Ships in the Fyrth of Edinburg which much amazed the French who were then marching for St. Andrews by the Sea-side whereupon they returned to Leith About the same time the Lords of the Congregation reformed Aberdene but the Earl of Huntley coming up in good time saved the Bishop's Palace which had else been reformed to the Ground The English Land-Forces to the number of two thousand Horse and six thousand Foot entred Scotland under the Command of the Lord Gray in the beginning of April The English at first beat the French into Leith and battered the Town very diligently but remitting in their Care and Industry the French made a Sally out of Leith and cut off a great number of the English which made them more vigilant The last of April a Fire happened in the Town which burnt the greatest part of it with much of the Soldiers Provisions The Seventh of May the Town was Storm'd but the Ladders proving too short an hundred and sixty of the English were slain and nothing was gain'd Soon after there came up two thousand English more In the mean time the French King sent to Queen Elizabeth that if she would withdraw her Army out of Scotland he would restore Calais to her To which she replied She did not value that Fisher-Town so much as to hazard for it the State of Britain Thereupon the French perceving no Peace could be had without the French were recall'd out of Scotland and disdaining to treat with the Scots who were their Subjects they began a Treaty with the Queen of England In the mean time Mary of Lorain Queen Regent of Scotland died in the Castle of Edinburg the Tenth of June partly of Sickness and partly of Displeasure Before her Death she sent for the Duke of Wastellerand the Earl of Argile Glencarne Marshall and the Lord James and bewailing the Calamities of Scotland prayed them to continue in Obedience to the Queen their Soverign and to send both the French and English out of the Kingdom so asking their Pardon and granting them hers she took her leave with many Tears kissing the Nobility one by one and giving the rest her Hand to kiss She was a Wife Good Religious Princess full of Clemency and Charity and would doubtless have prevented the Calamities of Scotland which befel there in the end of her days if she had been left to her own Measures but being governed by the Orders of France she was forced to do and say what she did to her great dishonour and disquiet which too at last ended in the Ruine of those she most desired to Promote as it always happens in Breach of Faith. She would often say That if her own Counsel might take Place she doubted not but to compose all the Dissention within that Kingdom and to settle the same in a perfect Peace upon good Conditions Soon after her Death or as Thuanus saith a little before it Embassadors from France and England came to Edinburg who sending for the Scoth Nobility began to treat about the sending the French out of Scotland which was at last agreed and the Sixteenth of July the French embark'd on the English Fleet for France and the English Army the same day began their march by Land for Berwick and the Fortifications of Leith and Dunbar were dismantled but sixty Frenchmen were left to keep the Castle of Dunbar and the same number the Isle of Inchkeeth until the States should find means to maintain the said Forts upon their own Charges from all Peril of Foreign Invasion In August the Parliament met which established a Confession of Faith contrary to the Roman Religion and pass'd three other Acts one for Abolishing the Pope's of Jurisdiction and Authority another for Repealing the Laws formerly made in favour of Idolatry and a third for the Punishing the Hearers and Sayers of Mass and with these Acts Sir James Sandelands was sent into France for the Royal Assent of the King
he himself ought to be compelled to renounce and retract the same Melanchton afterward answered this Decree of their and so did Luther too but in a jocose drolling way Now the Divines of Paris reckon themselves to be the chief in that kind of all Europe They have two Colleges the Sorbonne and College of Navarre and thither flock Students almost from all Countries The Bachelours of Divinity are exercised in frequent Disputations all the Summer time and must for the space of twelve Hours answer the Arguments of all Opponents Here are strange Bickerings and for the most part about matters which are either Frivolous or above the Reach of Human Understanding loud Bawlings and fierce Contentions often happen about such Trifles and are commonly ended by the hissing or stamping of the Auditors when one of the Disputants grows either Silly or Tedious The Doctors of Divinity stand without and hear through a Grate and are called Magistri nostri our Masters These are the Censurers of all sorts of Doctrin and are in a manner absolute without Appeal for no Man dares to publish any thing in Divinity without their Licence But most of them follow their Ease and seem to aspire to that Degree that they may lead a quiet Life and bear Rule over others There are indeed some excellent Wits amongst them but others again that deserve to be sent to School again and whipt into better Breeding Pope Leo had already made a League with the Switzers that if at any time he had occasion for them he should have their Aid The French King also who had concluded a Peace with them as hath been said in the first Book was solliciting them for a League and to assist him with Soldiers but Zuinglius did all he could to disswade them from this in his Sermons he told them That it was not only sordid but an impious thing also to serve any Foreign Power for Money and having shewed them the many Inconveniencies thereof he exhorted them to tread in the Steps and follow the Frugality of their Ancestors who minded their Cattle and Husbandry and had done many famous Exploits but all this was in vain for the Nobility being prevailed with by Importunity Gifts and Promises persuaded the Common People so that all the Cantons of Switzerland made a League with him this Year and promised to assist him with Men except those of Zurich who being wrought upon by Zuinglius refused it and bound themselves by Oath not to accept Present or Pension from any Prince to serve him in his Wars The King had afterwards a Son born who was christned by the Name of Charles the Suitzers by their Ambassadours standing as Godfathers Now the whole State of Suitzerland consists at present of thirteen Cantons which are Zurich Berne Lucerne Vri Switz Vnderwalt Zug Claris Basil Solothurne Friburg Schafhausen and Appenzil These are joyned together by Oath in a most strict League have equal Rights and Priviledges and govern the State as a Commonwealth The first that entered into this League were the Cantons of Vri Switz and Vnderwalt when having expelled the Nobles who oppressed them they stood up for their Liberty and this was in the Year 1315. To these afterwards joyned Lucerne next Zug in the sixth place Zurich and then Berne Basil was almost the last that entred into the Union There were associated to them afterwards but not under the same Laws nor in so strict a conjunction of Friendship the Grisons Sionese Rhinwalders the Haut Valais those of Sangall the Mulhausians and other neighbouring People The Emperour being now past the one and twentieth Year of his Age on May 8 by a Publick Decree put Luther in the Ban of the Empire He begins his Edict with Considerations taken from his own Person That it was his Office not only to settle and enlarge the Empire but to provide also that no Sect nor Heresie spring up within the Bounds of the same That his Ancestors had carefully bestirred themselves in that and that therefore it was much more reasonable that he whom God had blest with so large and ample Dominions should imitate their Example for that if he should not restrain the Heresies lately broken forth in Germany he would both wound his own Conscience and in the beginning now of his Reign bring a great Dishonour upon his Name and Dignity That all Men without doubt knew what impious Doctrins Luther for some Years had divulged That Pope Leo X to whom the recognizance of those things properly belonged being moved therewith had essayed all ways of reclaiming him and had at first used most gentle Remedies but that when such Courses could not prevail he had proceeded to these Methods which are prescribed by the Ancient Canons and Decrees and had assigned him a certain time to abjure his Errour in under a severe Penalty if he obeyed not but that he was so far from obeying that he published more pernicious Books still That the Pope having seriously pressed him the Emperour to perform his Duty to the Church and put a stop to the Proceedings of a hurtful Man had published that Bull of the Popes against him But that he grew no better for all that nay on the contrary that he began to rage and publish Books full of spiteful Reproaches concerning nothing almost but Seditions Wars Discords fire and Sword Murther and Rapin That he contemned the Authority of the Fathers and Councils and chiefly of the Council of Constance casting such Reproaches upon it as not only reflected upon the holy Men of that Age but also upon the Emperor Sigismund and the Senate of the Princes That his outrageous malice could not be sufficiently expressed That it seemed not to be a Man who acted so but rather a Devil in Man's likeness That it heartily grieved and troubled him to think on these things for the love he bore to the Publick and the Papal Dignity That therefore lest he might seem to suffer any thing unworthy the Vertue of his Ancestors or inconsistent with his own Dignity and Charge he had called a Diet of all the Princes and States of the Empire and had with joynt Councils seriously weighed and examined the whole Matter And that though the Laws provide that an open Heretick so often condemned and cast out of the Communion of the Church should not be heard yet that there might be no place left for cavilling he had sent his Letters and a Herald with a safe Conduct for him that he might personally give Account of his actings Then he reckons up in order all that past at Wormes both publickly and privately as it hath been mentioned before And because he obstinately defended his Errours he cited the Popes Bull which he said he would see put in Execution Wherefore he condemned and banish'd him as an Author of Schism and an obstinate and notorious Heretick He also charged all Men under severe Penalties to look upon him as such and
not treat of such things as they had no Power to determine nor lose Time to the Prejudice and Hinderance of other Deliberations they would therefore impart to them what Instructions they had from the Emperour as to that matter and thereupon caused the Emperour's Letter dated at Seville March 23 to be read The Substance whereof was That he intended to go to Rome to be crowned and also to treat with the Pope about a Council But that in the mean time he willed and commanded That the States should not decree any thing in this Dyet that might any ways be contrary to the ancient Customs Canons and Ceremonies of the Church but that all things should be ordered within his Dominions according to the Form and Tenor of the Edict of Wormes which was made with their unanimous Advice and Consent That they should patiently bear with this Delay until he had treated with the Pope about a Council which should be shortly called for that by such private Regulations there was not only no good to be done but the Errours and Licentiousness of the Common People were thereby the more confirmed About this time the Emperour of the Turks marching from Belgrade and having passed the Danube and Save advanced streight towards Hungary Wherefore King Lewis sending again Ambassadours to Spire demanded Assistance Certain Intelligence came then also from Italy That Pope Clement and the Venetians had made a League with the King of France lately returned home from Spain against the Emperour as shall be said hereafter The Emperour's Letters I mentioned before being read most of the Free Cities especially of Vpper Germany delivered in their Minds in Writing as it is usual That they desired by all means to obey and gratifie the Emperour but that the Controversie about Religion increased daily especially concerning Ceremonies and Corruptions That hitherto the Decree of Wormes could not be observed for fear of a Sedition and Insurrection but that now the Danger and Difficulty was much greater as had been plainly made appear to the Pope's Legate in the former Dyet And that if the Emperour himself were present and informed of the state of Affairs he would be of the same Opinion That the Emperour indeed in his Letter promised a Council but when he wrote that Letter the Pope and he were on very good Terms together but that it was far otherwise now when the Pope having changed his Mind brought his Forces into the Field against the Emperour and that as Affairs stood it did not appear how a Council could be called That therefore it seemed most expedient to them either to send Ambassadours to the Emperour or by Letters to inform his Majesty of the whole matter and of the state of Germany and how dangerous a thing it would be to delay the business of Religion any longer or to urge the Edict of Wormes That in regard hereof his Imperial Majesty was to be intreated That for avoiding of greater Troubles he would suffer a National Council of Germany to be assembled wherein all matters might be tried and examined That this Course had been approved in the Dyet of Norimberg when another Dyet was therefore appointed to be held in this City and many of the States made preparation for the same But its being countermanded by the Emperour made way for Stirs Seditions and a bloody Civil War which might have been prevented if the Affair of Religion had at that time been lawfully decided Now if the Emperour approved not a National Council that he might be intreated to suspend the Execution of the Edict of Wormes until the meeting of a General Council for that else the Wound lately healed would fester again and grow worse Furthermore That in this Discord and Dissention so long as every Man was forced to be solicitous about their own private concerns it would be very difficult and uneasie to contribute Money for the Aid and Assistance of others Besides this Paper which was presented to the Princes August 4 they preferred also another Therein they complain That poor Men every where were over burthened by Mendicant Fryers who wheadled them and eat the Bread out of their Mouths Nor was that all neither but many times also they hooked in Inheritances and most ample Legacies to the great Prejudice of many That it was therefore their Opinion That they should not be suffered to propagate those Fraternities any more That when any of the Fryers dyed there should be none put into their place and that such of them as were willing to follow another course of Life might have some yearly Pension and that the rest of their Revenues should be brought into the publick Treasury That besides it was not reasonable that the Clergy should be exempted from all publick Burthens That that Priviledge had been granted to them of old by the Bounty of Kings but at such a time when they were both few in Number and low in Fortune But that now when they were mightily increased both in Number and Wealth the case was far different for the Cause of the Priviledge being removed the Effect also ought to cease and the rather that they did as much as other People nay more too enjoy all these Advantages for which Money Taxes and Customs used to be raised and paid Again That the great number of Holy-days was prejudicial to the People who were bound under great Penalties to keep them neglecting their necessary Work and Business and many ways offending God on those idle Days That the Law also for distinction of Meats ought in their Opinion to be abrogated and all Men left to their Liberty as to Ceremonies until the meeting of a General Council and that in the mean time the course of the Gospel should in no ways be obstructed After that Letter of the Emperour 's was read the Bishops refused to proceed in the matter of Religion and whilst the Pope and Emperour were at so great Variance they thought it best to delay till a fairer occasion of acting offered Thus there happened so great Animosity and Dissention betwixt the Commissioners who were of different Religion that all deliberation being on a sudden at a stand the Duke of Saxony and Landgrave thought of returning home and ordered their Servants to prepare for the Journey This being known Ferdinand and Richard Archbishop of Treves and others perceiving that it would be a very dangerous Matter if in so distracted a time and when all Men's Eyes and Expectations were fixed upon this Dyet they should depart not only without making any Decree but also with Minds full of Rancour took a course to make up this Breach for seeing many were of Opinion That the Insurrection the Year before and the Troubles at present sprang altogether from the Divisions about Religion they thought it convenient to apply a Remedy in Time Having therefore appeased the Minds of some a Decree was made at length to this purpose That
called that he promised them this upon his Royal Word but on this Condition still That in the mean time they should follow the same Religion which he and the rest of the Princes professed For that to procure the calling of a Council and yet to suffer things to continue at such uncertainties and not to put a stop to those Innovations all men did see how prejudicial that must needs prove both to himself and others They having consulted returned this Answer That they had not caused any new Sect nor separated from the Christian Church That they heartily thanked his Majesty for that he was not against a Council and begg'd that with the first opportunity an Holy and Free Council might be called in Germany as it had been decreed both in the last and former Dyet of Spire but that to receive the Rites and Doctrins of the Church of Rome which were now abolished they could not do it with a safe Conscience After long Deliberation the Emperour caused Truchses to tell them That he had carefully read over and perused the Memoires of the Conference and found that they dissented very much from the Christian Church That he wondred also at the Condescension of the Commissioners who had granted so many things and at their stiffness in not accepting what had been offered That whereas they grounded their demanding of a Council upon the Decrees of the Empire they had no Right to do so since they rejected the last Decree of Spire against which they had protested and appealed from it though he looked upon their Appeal as void and null since it was but reasonable that the smaller number should be determined by the greater and what an inconsiderable Party were they if compared with the Pope with himself and the rest of the Princes That therefore he desired to know of them if they were willing to enter into any further Treaty and Conference for that he would spare no pains nor trouble that he might by any means make way for Concord and Agreement but that if they refused a Treaty and would needs pursue their designs then he must do as became the Protector of the Church And that because it was drawing towards Night he gave them till next morning to consider on the matter Next day when all the States were met at the hour appointed Pontane a Lawyer made answer in Name of the Duke of Saxony and his Associates to this effect That if the Emperour understood the whole Affair as it was acted he would then believe their former Relation Nor did they doubt but their Doctrin would be judged consonant to the Word of God in the Judgment of an Holy and Free Council And that so it was the less to be wondred at that they did not accept of what had been lately granted and offered That that Appeal was for necessary Causes made only against that part of the Decree which struck at the Doctrin of the Gospel and the Custom of the Primitive Church That in all things else they obeyed it That besides at the very opening of that Dyet and long before the Decree was made a Council had been promised them by his Deputies Nor so only neither but in all the Dyets of the Empire that had constantly been the Opinion of all That since then they had appealed to his Imperial Majesty and a free Council they were in hopes that he would not derogate from their Appeal until a lawful Sentence should pass thereupon That it was not a place to dispute whether or not in this Controversie the smaller number should be concluded by the greater That that had indeed been the chief Reason which had obliged them to appeal and that they would in Council give their Reasons more fully for what they had done That therefore since all former Dyets had decreed a Council without any limitation or condition they earnestly desired that he would not rescind those Decrees but therein condescend to the Will and Resolution of the rest of the States That they rendred his Majesty most hearty Thanks That he was pleased to offer them a farther Conference and Treaty but that seeing it easily appeared by the Acts of the last Conference that they had condescended as far as possibly they could and that he himself wondred at the Papists for granting so much it might with small Difficulty be gathered what his Majesty's Judgment was in the case so that it would be in vain to appoint any other Treaty because it would bring a Delay and hindrance to other Affairs But that they were very willing to consult of any way that might preserve the Peace of the Empire until the meeting of a Council as they had said at first and that in the mean time they would do nothing but what they should think pleasing both to God and to a lawful Council also After they had been commanded to withdraw they were at length called in again and because it was a weighty affair the Emperour said he would consider of it and withal desired the Duke of Saxony as being the chief of the Party not to depart from the Dyet George Truchses and Veh a Lawyer of Baden propounded some things privately concerning the Mass and Vows in order to a Reconciliation but that was in vain And therefore the Emperour commanded a Committee to be chosen for framing a Decree The Parties chosen were the Archbishop of Mentz the Elector of Brandenburg the Bishops of Saltsburg Strasburg and Spire George Duke of Saxony William Duke of Bavaria and Henry Duke of Brunswick When the Duke of Saxony was thinking of returning home the Emperour September the eighteenth desired of him that he would stay but four Days longer In the mean time the Princes of the Committee drew up the Form of a Decree and September the two and twentieth the Emperour sent for the Duke of Saxony and his Associates to come to Court and in a full Assembly of the Princes caused that to be read which concerned Religion which was That the Duke of Saxony and his Associates had exhibited a Confession of their Faith which had afterwards been refuted by Testimonies of Scripture and that through the Pains that he himself and the rest of the States had been at things were after brought to this pass that they had received some Doctrins of the Church and rejected others which being so that therefore to shew how desirous he was of Peace and how far from acting any thing unadvisedly or out of Private Interest he was graciously pleased to grant them time to consult until the fifteenth Day of April that in the mean time they might consider with them selves and come to a Resolution if in the remaining Points of Doctrin they would acquiesce to what the Pope he himself and the whole Christian World besides professed That in the mean while it was his Will and Pleasure that all Men throughout the Empire should live in Peace that the Duke of
but that he was now very aged and altogether unfit to undertake a Journey besides he had in reserve several weighty Reasons why he could neither come himself nor yet send his Son thither for he had met both at Spiers and Auspurg with some things which were none of the best Presidents so that unless the Emperor would publickly pass his Word for the safety both of himself and his Friends they could by no means make their Appearance Besides in what place soever he was he could not be without the Doctrin of the Gospel and Preaching of the Word of God nor could he endure that in the matter of Diet any difference of meats should be prescrib'd unto him Now if the design was to treat about Religion the very nature of the thing requir'd that he should bring Luther and other Divines along with him for whom he likewise expected a convenient Security Moreover he had often apply'd himself to the Emperor that he might be inaugurated into his Government according to the Custom of the Empire as likewise for several other things none of which he could ever obtain notwithstanding many specious Promises had been pass'd upon him Nay Frederick the Palatine had by the Emperor's Command return'd him such an answer to his Demands in the last Diet at Auspurg as did let him plainly see that his Imperial Majesty had great Resentments against him which he had but little deserv'd For these reasons he thinks it not safe for him to make his appearance there However would but the Emperor by their Mediation grant him these Requests before the sitting of the Diet he promises not to absent himself About the later end of August the Embassadors of the Elector of Mentz and the Prince Palatine arrive at Smalcalde and there express to the Protestants Embassadors how tender a regard their Princes have for their Country and the Publick good For since the Diet at Auspurg was broken up before the differences could be adjusted they considering how great dangers might arise from such Dissentions could not rest till they had obtain'd leave from the Emperor to be the Mediators of a Peace To which end they think it the best way to concert those things again which could not be decided at Auspurg and so to begin there now where they left off then To this the others made answer That their Masters were ignorant what Proposals would be made and so had not giv'n them any certain and determinate Commission how to act but had only commanded them to return to them in writing the Propositions that should be laid down so that if they now pleas'd to make their Proposals they would act therein according to their Masters Commands They on the other side do again largely rhetoricate about their Princes affection to their Country and wonder that since their requests about the Exchequer are obtain'd they should not be furnish'd with a larger Power to act especially in those things which could not be determin'd at Auspurg but if they must stick there and cannot stretch their Commission any further it will prove a matter highly disagreeable both to the Emperor and their Masters On the other side 't is reply'd That they are not to be blam'd upon this account For since the Mediators had propounded no particular method of Treaty but had only spoke of Peace in general their Orders could not well be otherwise And then for the debating of such Matters as these it is necessary that Divines and Men of Learning be made use of to whose Function it belongs Since therefore they were ignorant of what nature the Treaty would be they pray that they may not be misunderstood and that they will excuse them to the Emperor if need so require and their earnest desire is that they will in the mean time lay down some terms of agreement Their Answer again is that they might easily have collected from the Letters sent to the Duke of Saxony and the Lantgrave of what nature the Treaty was like to be That 't is none of their design to meddle with religious Dogmas but since they themselves desire an Accommodation till such time as a Council may be call'd they are therefore willing to enter into discourse with them that so they may come in the mean time to some resolution about those Opinions which are as yet undecided that they have indeed Orders to treat about these things and to try which way a Peace or at least a Truce may be establish'd which 't is impossible to effect before they come to some determination about the Points in Controversie But if they are not permitted by their Commission to meddle in these things yet however they ought to point out what they think to be the best and most convenient Expedient for accomodating the business They return for answer that there was nothing found in the Letters which did signifie any Conditions of the future Treaty and as to their desire of knowing what is to be done till a Council shall be call'd in relation to those Points which are not yet determin'd they do not see how they can come to any resolution in that matter unless it be first demonstrated from Scripture what is Pious and True what Impious and Fictitious for the effecting of which this is by no means a proper place For both the Writing which they exhibited at Auspurg and also the Answer unto it were of a considerable bulk and contain'd a great many things for the handling of which Men well skill'd in Divinity ought to be made use of But for them to appoint some Expedient for a Reconciliation they conceive it not to be their Duty since they stand upon the defensive part In the Diet of Auspurg the Emperor had often been solicited for Peace and afterwards too both by Letters and Embassadors more than once and they now do earnestly desire the same thing 'T is reply'd on the other side That they think the Expedient which they before had mention'd to be very proper but since they say that they have no Orders to act in that matter they will not urge it any farther However they think it not advisable to break up after this manner and since the Emperor at the Intercession of their Princes had granted a Cessation they think it may not be improper to appoint a certain day upon which the Princes themselves together with the Embassadors of the Cities may have a Meeting And since a Diet of the Empire is shortly to be held at Spiers where without question the Emperor and the rest of the States will be present what if they should agree to meet together there some time before the Diet the doing of which may possibly procure the Cessation to be continued for some longer time however it seems absolutely necessary that one Point be particularly consider'd namely how every Magistrate ought in the mean time to behave himself as well towards his own Subjects as Strangers But if
promise Fealty to Casimire Sigismund's Father yet this was altogether contrary to former Covenants and that this is true may be evinc'd ev'n from the testimony of Albert himself who about eight years since profess'd the same thing at the Diet of Nuremburg He prays therefore that the King of Poland's Demand being rejected the Sentence pronounc'd against Albert may be put in execution In this Diet the chief thing that fell under Deliberation was the War against the Turks And now Intelligence being daily brought both by Letters and Messengers that the Turk had sent before vast bodies of Horse towards the Danube and the Embassadors from Austria and other Neighbouring Countries having giv'n an account what great danger they were in It was resolv'd that there should be a general Contribution of Aids and that the States of the Empire should send supplies of Men rather than Mony towards this War. Therefore upon the 27th of July this Diet broke up and all went to prepare for the War. Upon the 6th of August the Elector of Saxony ended his days to whom John Frederick his Son succeeded When Solyman was come to Belgrade he struck off towards the left and attack'd in vain the Town and Castle of Gunza which was very bravely defended by Nicolas Jurisch from thence he sent out 1500 Horse to Plunder under the Command of Cason who making Excursions as far as Lintz which is above Vienna and having ravag'd the Country far and near exercis'd all manner of Barbarities But being about to retreat they fell among our Horse who had been sent out to hinder their Plunders and Rapine and being charg'd in diverse places they were at length almost all cut in pieces and Cason himself was slain in the action Solyman keeping more and more to the left came at last to Gratz a Town of Stiria which when the Emperor who was then at Lintz understood he consider'd what was to be done and came at last to this Resolution viz. To encamp his whole Army near Vienna and there to expect the Enemy But Solyman went back without performing any memorable Action The Emperor had sent to the King of France for his Assistance but his answer was as the Emperor then reported it that Germany was powerful enough of it self to oppose the Incursion of the Turk The King of England was also very dilatory and obscure too in his Answer Pope Clement did contribute his Aid and committed the chief management thereof to Cardinal Hippolitus of the house of Medices The Switzers though solicited by the Emperor would not stir At this time in the months of September and October there appear'd a Comet before Sun-rising When the Turks were retired the Emperor contrary to the opinion of those who advis'd him to persue the Enemy broke up his Army because Winter was near and departed from Vienna towards Italy When he was at Mantua he dispatch'd Letters dated the 10th of November to the States of the Empire wherein he signify'd that his Brother the King of the Romans was to Govern the Empire during his absence That 't was for very weighty Reasons that he had left Germany for Italy and that there he would treat with the Pope about a Council as it had been resolv'd upon at Ratisbon he hopes therefore they will preserve that Peace which he had lately ratify'd by his Edict and that they will pay the same Obedience to his Brother as to himself Going from thence to Bononia he came to a Conference with Pope Clement the Seventh and among other things he held a Consult with him about Religion and a Council He likewise enters into a League with him and the other Princes of Italy or rather he verbally renews it for half a year longer in order to maintain the Peace of Italy or indeed rather to preclude the French from any entrance thither The French Embassadors vigorously oppos'd it but Clement advis'd them to act more calmly giving them notice privately that it was not like to last long For the Emperor had brought with him a great number of Spanish Forces of which the Pope had a desire to clear Italy He therefore approv'd of this League in compliance with the times After this the Emperor in the month of March sets Sail for Spain and soon after the Pope sends Hugh Rango Bishop of Regium Embassador into Germany Who coming to the Elector of Saxony in company with the Emperor's Embassador made a Speech to this effect That some months since the Pope and Emperor entring into a Consultation at Bononia about several weighty Affairs they likewise took the Cause of Religion into their Consideration upon which account the Pope has thought it convenient to send an Embassy into Germany And though the greatness of the Affair deserves that a Man of larger abilities and experience should be imploy'd in it yet this Province is put upon him though very much against his will. The occasion therefore of his present coming is to let him understand the Pope's mind and pleasure in this matter nor are these things done without the consent and approbation of the Emperor It has been the earnest desire of Clement the Seventh ever since his entrance upon the Papacy that these Differences which have been created in Germany about Religion should be compos'd that so he might manage the Government of the Church with greater Ease and Tranquility That for the effecting of this he has more than once sent Men very eminent for their Learning into Germany but his labour has hitherto prov'd to no purpose But when the Emperor was come at last from Spain into Italy and was about to depart from thence into Germany the Pope had then great hopes that he might by his Countenance and Authority easily appease these Animosities Nor did the Emperor spare any diligence whereby he might restore his Country to its ancient Religion to which purpose though he held several Diets yet he could effect nothing especially since those his excellent Endeavours have been slackned and impeded by the Incursion of the Turk that Enemy of the Christian Name But now since the Emperor has been a second time in Italy and held a long Discourse with the Pope wherein he discover'd it to be his sense that there could not be a more proper and efficacious remedy found out than a general Council would be of which likewise the German Princes are eagerly desirous The Pope likewise declares himself to be well pleas'd with this Expedient both for the sake of the Publick and of the Emperor whom he is very willing to gratifie This is the occasion of their Embassy and they are oblig'd by their Instructions to declare this unto him in the name of the Pope But since the nature of the thing requires that they should first deliberate about the manner time and place of holding the Council they have therefore brought with them certain Heads subscribed by the Pope which contain the whole Model
of that Affair some of which do relate to the Method and Order of it As that it shall be a free and general Council such as the Fathers were wont to hold whose minds were undoubtedly guided by the Divine Spirit Then that all who are present at the Council shall promise to be obedient to the Decrees thereof for unless care be taken of that all their labour will be in vain For to what end will it be to enact Laws which no body will observe and which any Man may safely violate Moreover they who cannot be present themselves shall send thither their Deputies And lastly that in the mean time all things shall remain in the same posture and condition they are in and that no Innovation be made till such time as it shall be decreed by the Council About a Place the Pope has been a long time considering For 't is highly fit that such a Place be made choice of as is fruitful and able to supply Provisions and such an one as has likewise a wholesome Air. He therefore conceives that Piacenza or Bolonia will not be incommodious or at least Mantua which is a City of the Empire and near to Germany situated in a pleasant place and abounding with all things necessary They have therefore their liberty to choose one out of these three places But if there be any Princes who will neither come themselves nor yet send their Deputies the Pope however shall go on with the business of the Council And if there be any who shall refuse to obey its Decrees and shall make a Revolt from the Pope then it remains that the Emperor with other Kings and Princes undertake the Defence both of him and the Church that they may not receive any Injury But now the great reason why a Council should not be call'd immediately is this because 't is necessary beforehand diligently to weigh and consider all the Circumstances of it and therefore the Emperor who has so often giv'n them hopes of seeing a Council has pleas'd to take care that the Princes of Germany should be acquainted with the Pleasure of the Pope in this matter And now if the King of the Romans and the rest of the German Princes shall return an agreeable Answer to these Proposals it will have this effect that the Pope will Proclaim a Council within six months which shall begin to sit the year following That so in that interim Provisions and other necessaries may be got together and all Men especially those who live furthest off may have time to prepare for their Journey When he had thus harangued he deliver'd the foresaid Heads drawn up in writing to the Elector And then the Emperors Embassador began his Speech which was to this purpose That since the settlement of religious Affairs has hitherto been in vain attempted in all the former Diets and 't is judg'd that the matter may be accommodated by a Council the Emperor has therefore lately prevail'd with the Pope that one may be held after the same manner and at the same Time and Place as his Embassador has now particulariz'd The purport therefore of this his Message from the Emperor is To testifie that a Council is very acceptable to the Pope and since his Embassador has already fully spoken to the whole matter 't will not become him to enlarge any further He only prays that this his Relation may be entertain'd as a truth and a friendly Answer return'd The Elector replies that since 't is a matter of great Importance he will take some time to consider of it and therefore desires that they will not be uneasie under a short delay To which the Pope's Embassador makes answer That he is very much in the right to proceed deliberately and that so arduous an Affair doth justly deserve some time for consideration These things were done at Weimar A few days after the Duke of Saxony return'd this Answer That he heartily rejoyces to find that the Emperor and the Pope have determin'd for a Council For the Publick State of Affairs does necessarily require that such a Council be held as the Emperor has often promis'd to the Germans a Council wherein things may be regularly handled and according to the Standard of the Word of God and if this be done he doubts not but all things will go very well As for his part he earnestly prays to God that he would grant this and his advice to all the people within his Dominions shall be that they would do the same He likewise will use the best of his endeavours for the effecting of it and will take care that his Allies shall apply their Industry the same way His desire truly is to give in his Answer forthwith but there are many of the same Religion who in company with his Father made profession of this Doctrin before the Emperor at the Diet of Auspurg And therefore 't will neither be just nor yet for the advantage of the Cause to give in a private Answer without taking them into a Consultation but an Answer under all their Hands will be much better Now because the Pope and the Emperor had by their Letters dated last Winter from Bononia giv'n the States of the Empire hopes that there would shortly be an Embassy and consequently upon that a Council He therefore and his Allies had agreed to meet together at Smalcalde upon the 24th of June there to deliberate about the whole business As soon therefore as the Confederates shall meet together which will be at the day appointed they will enter into a Consultation and dispatch away their Answer with all speed either by Embassadors or Letters As for his part he shall by the Grace of God so behave himself that not only the present Age but Posterity also may see that of all things in the World he desires nothing more than that pure Religion and a flourishing Peace may be establish'd not only in Germany but also through the whole Christian World and that the Emperor as Supream Magistrate may enjoy all that Honour and Dignity which justly belongs unto him Accordingly when the Confederates had met together and concerted the whole business upon the last day of June they return an Answer by Letter in the name of their whole Body wherein they give the Emperor all possible Thanks for taking such pains for the Glory of God and the Publick Welfare nor do they in the least doubt but it is from his heart that he desires a Council They therefore pray God to confirm his Resolution and so to direct him that Truth may again be brought into fashion and that false Doctrin with corrupt Rites and Modes of Worship may be taken away and all Error may be rooted out from the hearts of Men that so the pure Worship of God and other Pious performances may be again reviv'd For they sincerely desire such a Council where the Points in Controversie may be rightly and
the less reason for non-compliance What the rest of the Princes Inclinations are in this case he is well satisfy'd of for he hath been importuning them all And the Pope hath set his heart so much upon it that if it should not go on his life would be uncomfortable to him Nay he does believe his Holiness's Nuncios are now upon their Journey to intimate the Council Now therefore at this juncture his Holiness is oblig'd to shew his Zeal for God's Glory and the good of Christendom For if he pleaseth to concur the business will be manag'd with more advantage but if he dissents the Council will begin notwithstanding Therefore the present opportunity is by no means to be neglected it being scarce ever to be retrieved again But though his Highness should choose to stand by and not assist the Council yet our Saviour himself will not deny them his Aid and Protection If his Highness would have any Point farther explain'd he is ready to give him satisfaction The Elector told him that he would consult his Allies and then return him an answer and after some other discourse he desir'd him to give him a Copy of his Speech Vergerius therefore upon the first of December gave in a Paper in which he was larger and somewhat different from what he had deliver'd by word of mouth He said the Pope had dispatch'd away Nuncio's to all the Courts in Christendom about the Council and that he was sent to King Ferdinand and the Princes of Germany for that purpose That the Emperor and Ferdinand approv'd Mantua for the place Neither ought this to seem at all strange for his Imperial Majesty declar'd himself to be of the same opinion two years since by his Embassador in Germany Neither could his Majesty be suppos'd to have any motive to alter his Judgment but on the contrary this very good reason among others to persist in it namely because Germany was full of Sacramentarians Anabaptists and such sort of Sects so that it was not safe for other Nations to come thither For a great part of those people are distracted and will not hear any manner of reason therefore it 's easie to imagine what a dangerous undertaking it must needs be to come among such a Rabble and condemn their Frensie and Extravagance without a Guard. And as for those who think either that the Pope will yield up his Priviledges which he hath enjoy'd for so many Ages or that the Emperor will call a National Council in Germany without his Holinesse's consent they are mightily mistaken For there is no better Expedient to establish a lasting Union in the Church than a free and general Council And though this remedy happens to be slighted by some people yet the Pope is resolv'd to proceed putting his whole trust in our Saviour whose Service he is there employ'd in Neither will he went the Concurrence of Kings and Princes of whose Inclinations towards so pious a Work he is well assur'd And because his Electoral Highness told him he would return an answer as soon as he had consulted his Confederates he desires he would please to do it as soon as may be He was now going to King Ferdinand and there he would expect their answer Now in reference to what his Highness mention'd concerning a safe Conduct that if they were oblig'd to go into Italy they must beside Paper-Security have Hostages given them he must needs say he did not understand the reason of such extraordinary Caution For Mantua was a City of the Empire in the Neighbourhood of Germany and bordering upon the Dominions of the Emperor and the Venetians therefore no danger could be apprehended there Yet since it was their request the Emperor would gratifie them in it and so would the Pope too as far as it was in his Power and consistent with former Precedents I have lately mention'd Vergerius his being sent back by the Pope into Germany Now after he had been with Luther at Wittemburg and was travelling out of Saxony to Ferdinand he happen'd to meet with the Elector as he was returning from the King's Court. The Protestants had already determin'd to meet at Smalcalde upon other business upon the 6th of December But the Nuncio's Embassy intervening they consulted upon it and wrote him an Answer upon the 21st That the Elector of Saxony had inform'd them what had been transacted at Prague And though all of them were not authoriz'd to concern themselves in this Affair it being impossible to acquaint all their Principals with it in so short a time yet because he desir'd to hear speedily from them they had sent him an Answer to his Proposals which though it was not so exact as the Subject deserv'd yet it was clear and intelligible And first They have already declar'd in several Diets how they stand affected towards a Council particularly above two years since they gave in their sense of this Point to the Emperor's and Pope's Ambassadors For the desire they have to promote the Welfare of the State and the Salvation of all Men in general makes them heartily wish for a lawful Council and to this purpose they have address'd with the rest of the Princes to the Emperor who also thought it necessary himself Neither did they question but that all good Men earnestly desir'd such a Council as may tend to the Reformation and advantage of Christendom For a great many pious Men are very much griev'd to see the Orthodox Faith suppressed every where by unjust Cruelty the Church torn in pieces and apparent Corruptions more and more confirm'd But such Rigour as this does not become the Governors of the Church besides if care be not taken this is the way to bring Ruine and Desolation upon Christendom Therefore now there is as much need of a Council as ever that old overgrown Errors may be removed that unreasonable and cruel Violence may be restrain'd and that the Churches may be setled upon a good Bottom for the future Therefore they were resolv'd not to desert the common Interest but would come to such a Council with all their Hearts as it had been already decreed in several Diets of the Empire And they beseech God Almighty that all the proceedings there may tend to his Glory and the Salvation of Men. But since the Pope hath made choise of Mantua they have great hopes that the Emperor will not depart from the Decrees of the Diets in that Point nor yet from his own word which was given when they had a legal Security passed for the fixing the Seat of the Council in Germany And whereas he objected that it was dangerous to come into Germany and that no freedom of Debate could be expected there for this very reason they ought more especially to be conven'd there that the Controversie may be fairly and regularly manag'd that good Men may not be over-awed in their Votes nor frighted from speaking their Minds by Violence and Faction
For though he was bred and born to nothing but Gentleness and good Nature yet he was constrain'd for some time to put a force upon his Temper and act disagreeably to his Inclinations And as he was willing to hear Men discourse upon any Subject so he could not choose but be displeas'd with those who attempt any rash Alterations without consulting their Superiors whose right it is to Determine Besides those whom he had done Justice upon were of a quite different Perswasion from them Now as to their Religion the King is of opinion that whatever they have done in that was agreed by common consent but how justifiable their Tenents were he should not examine For in cases of that difficulty he was not willing to pretend to be a better Judge than others but believed there were some things to be approved and disapproved in both Communions For the nature of Man is such that if he is once allow'd to pronounce upon his own Sentiments he is in danger of falling into Error and Mistake Afterwards he endeavours to gain their good opinion more directly and confutes those Persons who say that the Germans ought to take care how they hold any Correspondence with foreign Embassadors maintaining that there was great disadvantage and slavery at the bottom of this advice For no State is so well fortify'd in it self as to be able to subsist and flourish for any considerable time without the Friendship and Alliance of its Neighbours Now there hath been a very ancient and intimate Correspondence between the Kings of France and the Princes of the Empire for both Nations are descended from the same Original and by reason of their situation and nearness they may be both a Guard and an Ornament to each other Therefore his Majesty is very much troubled when he hears of any Misunderstandings among the Germans and endeavours to his Power to make up the Breach And has often been afraid lest this disagreement in Religion should have some unfortunate consequence And since he now understands they have form'd an Association to defend their Priviledges and Honour not excluding those of a different Perswasion he hath great hopes that this Expedient will open a way for the reconciling of Opinions Being therefore acquainted with these Occurrences he was willing to send his Embassador to let them know his sense in the Case Now in regard the present State of Affairs is such that a free and general Council cannot be conven'd as yet The King thinks it most proper that all the Germans should meet in the mean time and by joynt consent pitch upon some Method for an Accommodation which may easily be effected provided things are not manag'd with obstinacy and Men do not account it a discredit to change their opinions upon Conviction and to yield to better Information If they proceed in this manner his Majesty will joyn with them and assist them in this Undertaking For the present Pope himself confess'd when the Case was moved to him by the King that Humane Traditions are not to be so rigidly insisted on but that they may be set aside when the exigency of the Times and the Peace of Christendom require it and declar'd that if the Controversie was regularly and fairly debated he would yield a great many things in compliance with the present Conjuncture and to promote a general Agreement Now if they are desirous that some learned French Divines should be present at this Conference or if they please to send any of their own Clergy into France upon this account his Majesty will be extreamly satisfy'd with it and leaves it wholly to themselves to do as they think convenient In fine he desires them that they would live amicably together and fortifie their Interest by keeping up a good Correspondence among themselves for this besides other advantages would contribute to the peace of their Country And as for his Majesty he would not assist their Enemies either with Supplies or Advice as long as they continued the same affection to him which they had hitherto shew'd In the beginning of this Book I observ'd that the Judges of the Chamber of Spire prosecuted the Protestants contrary to the Emperor's Edict The case was this These Judges were most of them Roman Catholicks and being address'd to for Justice by the Ecclesiasticks after the Emperor was return'd into Italy from the War in Austria who complain'd of the Protestants They order'd a Suit to be commenc'd against them And though the Protestants put in their Exceptions and alledg'd that the Cause was of an Ecclesiastical nature and consequently included in the Emperor's Edict who has barr'd all Process relating to Religion yet they over-rul'd these Allegations and went on in their way The Protestants therefore wrote into Italy to the Emperor complaining how they were disturb'd and procure another Mandate from him Upon this the Judges send the Emperor word that they were at a loss how to act and how to obey his Majesties Commands For the Parties often contested the nature of the Causes whether they belonged to Religion or not therefore they desire to know his Majesties Pleasure in this Case The Emperor answers their Request and gives them Authority to determine whether the Causes which come before them relate to Religion or not Being thus fortify'd they proceed briskly not only interposing in mixt Causes but in those which were purely Spiritual for besides Restitution to the Ecclesiasticks they command the Mass and all the Ceremonies and Worship of the Roman Church to be set up again Now while these things were doing it happen'd that the Elector of Saxony had occasion to go to Cadan to King Ferdinand about some other business where he complain'd how himself and his Confederates were us'd and after they had agreed those other Points which I have mention'd Ferdinand confirm'd the Imperial Edict and commanded the Pacification to be observ'd and order'd the Chamber to forbear all Prosecutions But they took no notice of this Order The Protestants therefore solemnly protested against the Jurisdiction of their Court assigning the Reasons they had to look upon them as Adversaries and refer the Dispute to Henry of Megelburg Robert Duke of Bavaria Christiern Duke of Holstein George Duke of Wirtemburg to the Senate of Auspurg and Wormes or to any other indifferent Arbitrators to determine whether the grounds of their Recusation were reasonable or not For things were come to that pass that their Council durst not speak out nor plead their Cause home for fear of disobliging the Court and coming into trouble But the Judges set aside this Recusation and declar'd it null and void as being contrary to the Laws and Customs of the Empire Afterwards the Elector of Saxony came to Vienna to King Ferdinand as hath been already related where he got a new Order against the Chamber but all to no purpose as shall be shewn in its place And because the Pacification granted by the Emperor
State and how much it will be expos'd to Misunderstandings and Tumults of the truth of this Allegation the Emperor's Edict which was then publish'd is a sufficient proof It was never their intention to plead in bar to the Jurisdiction of the Chamber in any Causes but those of Religion and they believ'd that Court could not prove the contrary upon them But they were very much troubl'd to hear from his Excellency that the Emperor had given the Chamber Authority to determine the quality of the Cause for they did believe all those Causes to be of a religious Nature and they were really such which could not be decided till the Extent of the word Religion was defin'd in a lawful Council which thing both by Letter and their Embassadors they had several times acquainted the Emperor and King Ferdinand with For this Dispute concerning the meaning and latitude of Religion is a preliminary Question and ought to be setled by the Council before other matters which relate to it are determin'd And in regard Benefices ought to be bestowed in consideration of Merit and Function They said they could not allow that those in their Dominions who were of a different Religion from themselves should enjoy the Revenues of the Church to which they had no manner of right because they were either unwilling to discharge their Office or wanted abilities to do it and since Conscience is more than ordinarily concern'd in the present case the usual Pleas of Law founded upon the right of Possession or Restitution ought not to be urg'd Moreover when the Treaty of Nuremburgh was on foot they particularly mention'd all those Suits and Difference which were then depending in the Chamber and in other Courts and represented them under the notion of Ecclesiastical Causes to the Princes of the Mediation who promis'd that they would endeavour to perswade the Emperor that they should be all exempted from the Jurisdiction of the Courts which was also promis'd by King Ferdinand at the Convention at Cadan besides it 's plain from that Clause in the Emperor's Edict which stops all Prosecutions of this nature that the Chamber of Spire has no Authority to determine the Quality of Causes And to say nothing more severe they could not choose but observe that the apparent Inclination of that Court to give Judgment against them had made a great many Persons much bolder and more contentious than they had formerly been which they were able to prove more than one way For when those of their Party moved that Court in any Cause their Suit was not only rejected but they were sent away with reproachful Language And lately the Hamburghers were commanded by them not only to restore the Clergy of their City their Goods and Estates but also to return them their old Religion and Jurisdiction back again and because they could not do this with a good Conscience they were amerced in a great Sum of Mony and therefore there needs no more Instances to let the Emperor understand what the Design of that Court is for if any Cause relates to Religion this certainly does But if the Judges are allowed to proceed in this manner the Truce serves to no purpose If the Rites and Ceremonies which were abolish'd may be lawfully restor'd by such Methods as these there will be no need of Council and yet the Emperor is pleas'd to grant that all Differences of this nature ought to be determin'd there and since their Exceptions against the Proceedings of the Court were not consider'd they were forc'd to decline the Jurisdiction of it As concerning the Persons of the Chamber there was not above one or two of the whole Bench of their Religion what Provision was made at Ratisbone for this Affair was well known it being apparent that those who were most violent against the Reformed were most acceptable to the Chamber nay a man may plainly discover how they stand affected by observing the air of their Countenances when they are trying of Causes and therefore they hope his Imperial Majesty will send them a positive Order to desist As for the Penalty which his Excellency mention'd was decreed at Ratisbone against Mal-administration that was no advantage to them Indeed if the Cause had related to Property and secular Affairs they might have had a compensation this way but matters of Religion were too weighty to be satisfied with Costs and Damages However if the Emperor is of opinion that they have intermix'd any civil Causes in their request they are willing this matter should be tried provided there may be a stop put to the Proceedings of the Chamber in the mean time Now as concerning those who came over to their Religion since the Pacification of Nuremburgh they confess'd that some few years since the Princes of the Mediation did insist at Schweenfurt that no more might be admitted into their Association which Proposition they then rejected and afterwards at the Convention at Nuremburgh they persisted in the same Opinion As to what his Excellency objects in reference to the Promises and Articles by which several of the States had engag'd themselves not to make any alteration in Religion To this the parties answer That some of them promis'd nothing others in private Treaties reserv'd this Liberty for themselves a third sort it 's true did engage themselves but it was upon the assurance which the Emperor gave them that a Council should be intimated within six Months and opened the year after But since this Assembly was delayed beyond their expectation and God had been pleas'd to give them a fuller apprehension of the true Religion they could not defer so good a Work any longer but thought it their Duty to make an open profession of that Doctrin which they were assur'd had both Truth and Piety to recommend it This the Canon-Law it self would justifie them in for from thence they had learn'd that if any Person had sworn to do a wicked Action this Oath did not oblige Besides as their Adversaries would not refuse any one who offer'd himself for a Convert so neither did they think it lawful to bar any person from coming over to themselves Therefore their earnest request to the Emperor was That the Judges might be check'd and that not only themselves but those who joyn'd them afterwards might be comprehended in the Peace For if matters should be otherwise carried and any violence should be offer'd they could not desert those they were allied to both by Vertue of their League and Religion This had been already declar'd to King Ferdinand at Vienna and that with a great deal of reason for the Cause of these later Confederates no less than their own belongs to the Cognizance of the Council But if the Judges of the Chamber will fore-stall the Hearing and hale in the business of the Council to their Court this is no less than down-right Force and Injustice against which by the Laws of Nature they are bound to defend themselves
almost the same minute went and made Luther a visit who lay very ill of the Stone which disrespect the Embassador might see if he pleas'd out of his own Lodgings Before the Bishop of Aix went upon his Employ Vergerius by the Popes Command acquainted him with the State of Germany and how he was to make his Court and salute every Person The fourth day after being the last of February the Protestants gave in their answer to Eldo That they did not question but that the Emperor would stand to the Pacification which he had engag'd himself to do several times both in his publick and private Letters but the Chamber of Spire and himself also in his Speech had advanced such an Interpretation which would not only render that Treaty less intelligible but perfectly void it and make it insignificant For the drift of his Discourse is to prove that only those Matters and Disputes are to be referr'd to Religion which are comprehended in the Edict at Wormes and in some other Decrees of the Empire and not those which are risen since and concern private Persons though they were expresly mention'd at Nuremburgh to the Princes of the Mediation but the Design of this Treaty was quite different from what his Excellency pretends For notwithstanding by the Instigation of Pope Leo the 10th the Emperor happen'd to publish his Edict at Wormes at a time when the true Faith was understood but by a very few yet afterwards that Edict as far as it related to them was suspended by several Decrees of the Empire more particularly in the Diet at Spire about eleven years since where it was agreed That the whole Controversie should be referr'd to a Council with the addition of this remarkable Clause that in the mean time all Magistrates in their respective Jurisdictions should discharge their Office in such a manner as they might be able to give a good account of their actions to God and the Emperor from whence it plainly appears that the foremention'd Edict was laid asleep so that they had no occasion to insist upon a new suspension of it at Nuremburgh For why were all Debates remitted to a lawful Council if the Edict of Wormes was always to be in force or if their Religion had always been accounted condemned But there was a wide difference between the Matter of that Edict and the Pacification at Nuremburgh for the former consider'd nothing but matter of Fact and was design'd for Prosecution the question at that time being only Whether the Edict was violated or not If a breach was prov'd then it 's likely the Chamber if the Decree of the Diet at Spire had not interpos'd might have exercis'd their Jurisdiction as in a secular affair But those things which were the occasion of that Convention and Treaty at Nuremburgh relate to Faith and Religion which beside other Proofs appears plainly from the Emperor's Letters Patents For though the Chamber had no Authority to try any Causes of this nature before yet to prevent Disturbance there was a more comprehensive Provision sign'd at Nuremburgh to make them forbear Besides it appears from the very words of the Emperor's Letters Patents that not only those Disputes which relate to matters of meer Religion were comprehended in the Treaty at Nuremburgh but all others also which are occasioned by the Change of Rites and Ceremonies and arise from Causes of a resembling nature Farther all Agreements are to be interpreted with respect to the circumstances of the thing which was the ground of the Controversie Now from the time of the Decree at Spire till the Treaty at Nuremburgh they do not remember that any of their Partty have been prosecuted or have had the least Disturbance given them by any particular Courts under the Emperor or Princes It 's true the Chamber had usurp'd an Authority in these Matters and commenc'd a Suit against some Persons for changing Religion together with the Rites and Ceremonies as also concerning Property and Estate And when there was a misunderstanding about these things they made express mention of them to the Princes of the Mediation Therefore that Treaty is to be understood to extend not only to those Points which result from the Edict of Wormes but to those also which were controverted at the very time of the Convention For otherwise what made them labour and trouble themselves at the rate they had done why were they at such Expences to remove a Grievance which was already mortifi'd by a solemn Decree of the Empire and from which they had no reason to apprehend the least inconvenience But being afraid the Chamber would occasion a Disorder in the State by commencing of Suits they agreed to a Cessation which can relate to no other Debates but those which were then the Principal Subject of the Controversie and explain'd to the Princes of the Mediation as such And whereas he alledgeth that the Emperor did not know under what Classis those Disputes were to be rang'd this seemeth improbable because that Convention was order'd on purpose to take up those Differences which unless they had been accommodated it was thought some publick Disturbances would have immediately follow'd Neither indeed it is credible that the Princes of the Mediation omitted the sending the Emperor an account of these things or that his Majesty if he disapprov'd any part of them should dissemble his dislike That the Emperor may allow this Liberty for the preservation of Peace is beyond all question and that the Peace cannot continue unless these Terms are granted they have lately prov'd And since by the Laws of the Empire no Man may take away his Neighbours Property therefore they explain'd themselves upon this Point to the Princes of the Mediation at Nuremburgh and declar'd That if the Chamber gave them any trouble for seizing upon the Fortunes of their Monks and Priests who had rejected the Doctrin and Worship of the true Religion they would look upon it as a Force and an Injury And whereas his Excellency thinks it unjust for them not to allow the Chamber to determine the nature of the Cause Whether it is Religious or Secular adding likewise That the more Reasons they had to support their Resolution the more publick they ought to make them They said they had given a sufficient Answer to this Objection before and thought it would have been urg'd no more upon them For though they are not afraid to make their Defence in open Court nay they are very desirous the whole Cause might be tried before equal Judges yet they could not depart from that Order which the Emperor had made in the present Case by which they were not remitted to the Judgment of the Chamber but all Process was stopp'd by his Imperial Prohibition with this Proviso That if any Person acted to the contrary his Majesty or his Embassador was to be acquainted with it As touching the Chamber it was easie for them to answer why they could not admit
unacceptable to the King set forward to Canterbury where they murthered Thomas and plundered his Houses But the King when he heard of it pretended to be extraordinary sorry and dispatched away Embassadors to Rome to purge himself who at last prevailed with the Pope to send some Persons over into England to enquire into the Murther And when the Pope had sent over Two Cardinals with Authority to act in this Affair and no Person upon Examination could be proved Guilty the King clears himself by Oath but because of his former Displeasure against the Archbishop and some extraordinary Expressions let fall by him it was thought he was to be a little suspected and blamed therefore his Peace was at last made upon these Terms viz. That he should show the Clergy all manner of Favour for the future that within Three Years he should go in Person against the Saracens and march his Army into Syria This Murther was committed in the Year 1171. Not long after Thomas as they say begun to work Miracles and grew famous upon it which when the Pope understood by his Legates he had him Canonized At the time of the Interview at Nice de Provence Joachim Elector of Brandenburg and Son of Joachim sends Eustachius Sclebius his Ambassador to the Elector of Saxony in the beginning of June with these Instructions That Sigismund King of Poland and John Vaivod King of Hungary had acquainted him that the Turk was making very formidable Preparations to take in Buda and fortify it that he may make another Descent upon Germany with the better Advantage That the Sultan had signified thus much to the Vaivod Now in regard his Father was enjoined in the Diet of the Empire to acquaint the rest of the States with whatever he could learn concerning the Motions of the Turks therefore he thought himself obliged in Duty to the Commonwealth to give this Notice and was very much troubled at the News because he was afraid it would prove a general Calamity to Germany For this and other Reasons he lately took a Journy into Lusace to King Ferdinand whom he found preacquainted with this Invasion and while he was there his Majesty received fresh Accounts of it both by Letters and Expresses Therefore if these Encroachments were not checked they might be assured That they who were in the Neighbourhood of the War should shortly see the barbarous Enemy in their own Country For all the way from Buda to his Electoral Highness his Territories and his own there was neither Castle nor fortified Town which was able to hold out against so great an Army no River no mountainous Marches no Defiles or straight Passages to stop his Progress excepting Breslaw and Lignite And what an open and fruitful Country Moravia and Silesia is his Highness knows too well to need any Information concerning the Quality and Situation of them And notwithstanding the Prospect of the common Danger had made him promise his Assistance to King Ferdinand upon his Request yet it was plain such a Supply as that would signify nothing For the Opposition and Consequences they have reason to expect are so considerable that they require no less than the united Forces and Contributions of the whole Empire Now because this cannot be had but in a publick Diet and by bringing all the Germans to a good Understanding between themselves and the Danger is so far advanced upon us that it will not bear any long Delay to Debate its Prevention therefore he had importuned the King in his last Conference with him that he would use his utmost Endeavours that the Peace of the Empire might be established within it self upon a firm and legal Foundation To this Request King Ferdinand who tenders the Good of the Commonwealth and has an Esteem for his Electoral Highness gave an obliging Answer and promised him his Interest and that he would recommend the Proposal to the Emperor as soon as he understood what his Highness and the rest of the Confederates desired And since the Case stands thus he entreats him to consider it and to acquaint him freely with those Terms which he thinks it proper to insist upon in the Treaty of Peace And then he will undertake that Ferdinand shall intercede with the Emperor in his own Name and does not question but that those Proceedings will be of great Advantage to the Commonwealth Moreover at this time it was much easier to repel the Turkish Invasion than formerly because the Difference between the Vaivod and Ferdinand was adjusted this the King had acquainted him with as a Secret not being willing such a Report should be made publick least the Sultan should know it Hitherto a great part of Hungary hath been embroiled by the Christians engaging in a civil War with each other but now seeing they stand upon good Terms and all Discontents are removed a very fair Opportunity for Action presents it self which makes him the more importunate in his Entreaties with his Highness whom he once again desireth that he would join in the common Cause of the Empire This Joachim was married to Sigismund the King of Poland his Daughter who was John Vaivod his Niece by his Sister This Alliance was the occasion of that intimate Friendship and Familiarity between them The Elector also was of the Lutheran Religion and published a Book concerning it but he refused to come into the League and was in other Respects entirely devoted to the Emperor and Ferdinand In his Reformation he retained some thing more than ordinary of the Ceremonies and was of a reconciling Temper The Elector of Saxony immediately gives the Lantgrave an account of this whole Matter in a Letter and afterwards upon the Twelfth of June they both of them write an Answer to the Brandenburger to this effect Although the present Affair is of such importance that it ought to be communicated to their Confederates yet they are very sensible of the Inconvenience of Delays especially seeing the Turk is as Enterprizing as ever and that they have spent too much time already in debating the Measures for the Settlement of Germany and opposing the Infidels with the whole strength of the Empire For as to their preparation for a Defence against so Savage an Enemy which his Electoral Highness pressed by his Ambassador he was certainly in the right the Interest of the State requiring no less But their Circumstances were such that a Peace among themselves was absolutely necessary for them a Peace that was fair and honourable likely to hold and not drawn up in ambiguous Terms For His Highness could not but see how unsafe and imprudent it must be for them to exhaust themselves upon the Turkish War when their Neighbours had not laid down their Quarrels and Animosities against them As for them they were very desirous of Peace but if they could not obtain it and therefore did not detach any of their Forces for Foreign Service while things looked so suspiciously at
Vertue by Conrade Heresbach When the States were come to Frankfort in February according to appointment they had a long dispute upon several Points with vehemence enough but at last upon the Nineteenth of April they concluded these following Articles viz. The Emperor grants those who are now Confederates of the Ausburg Confession a Truce for Fifteen Months that there may be a Conference of learned Men concerning Religion and during that time commands all Persons to forbear giving them any disturbance upon the account of their Perswasion The Pacification at Nuremberg and the Emperor's Edict at Ratisbone are still to continue in force And if the differences about Religion are not adjusted before the Truce expires the Peace made at Nuremberg shall continue notwithstanding till the next Diet and if there happens to be a Meeting of the Empire within the Term of the Truce the former Pacification shall hold good notwithstanding till a second Diet is convened While the Truce lasts the Emperor will put a stop to all Suits commenced against the Protestants particularly to the Proscription of Minden and commands all Prosecutions to the contrary to be void and null The Protestants shall have no occasion to make their usual Objection for the future as if they could not have a fair Hearing in the Court upon the account of their Religion for they shall have Right and Justice done them without any manner of Exception On the other side the Protestants are to molest no Body nor admit any person into their League during the Cessation neither shall any of their Party have any Violence offer'd them upon the score of their Religion The Emperor will likewise undertake that none shall be received into the Counter-League during this interval The Protestants shall suffer the Ecclesiasticks wheresoever they live to enjoy those Revenues they are at present possessed of The First of August shall if the Emperor consents be appointed for a Meeting of the Roman Catholicks and Protestants whither candid and peaceable Men shall be sent who have nothing of Quarrelsomness or Obstinacy in their Disposition These Persons shall choose a certain Number of Divines to argue the Case of Religion in a dispassionate and amicable Way These Divines shall have others joined with them in the Conference who though they are not Clergy-men by Profession shall yet be Persons of Understanding and Temper The Emperor also and King Ferdinand shall if they please have their Embassadors present at this Debate and whatever is decreed there by common Consent shall be reported to the States who are absent after whose Approbation the Emperor's Embassadors shall confirm it Or else the Emperor himself shall ratify it in the next Diet and Pronounce it unalterable and inviolable All Warlike Preparations shall cease on both sides and whosoever shall appear to attempt any thing of this Nature shall give a publick Account in Court why he does so yet with this Proviso That necessary Defence shall be denied to no Man In all other Cases the Laws of the Empire shall be observed on both Sides The Anabaptists are not to be comprehended in this Truce nor any others whose Religion is different from the Confession of Ausburg The Protestants shall be obliged to have their Supplies for the Turkish War in a readiness that there may be no time lost And when the Electors and some others of the most considerable Princes and States shall by the Emperor's Order send their Embassadors to Wormes upon the Eighteenth of May the Protestants shall likewise send their Agents thither to conclude upon a Method for the Raising Forces against the Turk upon a sudden Occasion And whatever is there decreed by the Majority shall be signed by the Protestants And if the Turk happens to make War upon the Empire while the Truce lasteth they shall be obliged to fight him with the rest All which Articles are to stand good upon Condition the Emperor gives his Approbation within Six Months computing from the beginning of May. And in the mean time that which they have concluded about the Truce and against enlarging the League shall continue in Force But if the Emperor does not declare his Mind within Six Months yet the Pacification at Nuremberg shall be observed as formerly John Archbishop of Lunden was the Emperor's Embassador at this Diet for Eldo was gone into Spain as I observed before Ferdinand also sent his Embassadors hither There was likewise a great Appearance of the Protestants The Elector of Saxony and the Lantgrave came in Person and brought several Divines along with them The Palsgrave and the Brandenburger mediated an Accommodation The Elector of Saxony among other remarkable things made his Protest against Ferdinand's Title of King of the Romans and declared he would abide by the Articles of Cadan and Vienna This Archbishop of Lunden whom I mentioned was a German by Birth and Privy Councellor to the King of Denmark but when that Prince was forced to fly his Country the Archbishop was banished and deprived of his Jurisdiction upon which he returned into Germany and applied himself to the Emperor and was afterwards made Bishop of Conscance Now while they were treating about an Accommodation at Francfort a Party of Soldiers were got together in Saxony and ordered by their Commanders to march into the Territories of the State of Bremen of the Duke of Lunenburg and of others of the reformed Religion and to stay there till the Camp should move Who gave them their Commission was kept very private at first but afterwards it was certainly known that they were raised by Henry Duke of Brunswick and his Brother the Archbishop of Bremen Those who were damnified by these Soldiers applied themselves to the Chamber for Justice but to no purpose The Protestants therefore to prevent farther Mischief managed their Business so as to gain them over to themselves though when they had them they did not imploy them to give their Neighbours any Disturbance Stephen Faber whom I mentioned before was dismissed by the Lantgrave at the Entreaty of the Princes of the Mediation after he had given a convenient Security about his Behaviour He promised of his own accord not to return to his Master because he believed he would not trust him any more but after he was at Liberty he went directly to him In this Convention William Duke of Cleve gave in a Memorial to the Protestants by his Ambassadors in which he explained his Title to Guelderland and also desired them to intercede with the Emperor on his Behalf and to recommend his Cause to his Imperial Majesty's Ambassador there present The French King had by his Embassador acquainted Vlrich Duke of Wirtemberg That he heard he intended at the Instance of the Confederates to make War upon some of the Bishops in Germany Now this was an Undertaking which he did not understand and therefore out of Friendship and Respect to him desired him to forbear for otherwise the Consequence would be that
Frederick Count Furstemberg In this Diet the Emperor on the Third of July made a heavy Complaint to all the States assembled of William Duke of Cleve for his seizing of Guelderland and at the same time presented unto them a Book which asserted his Right to that Province telling them that he had summoned him to appear there but that he had taken a Journey a quite contrary way meaning thereby into France as we said before There were Ambassadors from Cleve there present who excused their Prince and as they insisted in proving his Title the Emperor arose and departed On the One and twentieth of July all the Princes and States waited on the Emperor to make Intercession for the Duke of Cleve desiring that he might be taken into the Protection of the Empire and the Controversy referred to a friendly Arbitration wherein they promised their best Endeavours But that if the Matter could not be accommodated they humbly besought him to prosecute his Right by Law Whereunto the Emperor sent this Answer by John Naves That whereas in this Diet which was called for the sake of the Publick that Differences might be removed and Peace setled in Germany much time had been spent and to his great Trouble and Prejudice to his other Affairs nothing could be concluded because of the clashing of Opinions he wondered very much to find them so unanimous in this Cause alone which was properly his own And so he dismissed them not without Displeasure The Day following Raymond the French King's Ambassador made a long Speech wherein he reckoned up at large the Reasons why his Master had driven out of his Country Charles Duke of Savoy who some days before had accused the French King thereof before the Emperor and States During this Diet the French King sent Caesar Fregoso a Genoese and Anthony Rink a banished Spaniard Ambassadors to the Grand Seignior who falling down the River of Po on their Way to Venice were about the First of July taken and slain William de Bellay of Langey a Man of singular Sagacity and Industry was then the French King's Lieutenant in Piedmont who having Intelligence of the Fact immediately acquainted the King therewith and July the Fifth wrote also from Turin to Alfonso Davalo Marquess of Pescara Governor of Milan for the Emperor that he would procure the Releasement of the King's Ambassadors who were made Prisoners as it was manifestly known by his Men for that otherwise the Truce made Three Years before by the Intercession of the Pope would be broken Now he desired that they might be set at Liberty either because at first he knew not or else pretended not to know what was become of them The Marquess to clear himself from Suspicion made as if he knew nothing at all of the Matter and to purge himself sent Count Francisco Ladronio Ambassador to the King. Du Bellay wrote another Letter to Pescara on the Eleventh of July wherein he briskly told him I would not doubt said he to speak of Religious Matters in a general Council of the whole World and that as pertinently too as ever your Kinsman and Friend Thomas Aquinas of old did provided I knew as much in Divinity as some of your familiar Friends know of this Murther For you must know that Indico Alfonso's Grandfather by the Father side the Son of Rodorigo as Spaniard married a vast rich Fortune of the Family of Aquinas And this Alfonso was Cousin-Germain to Ferdinando Davalo of Pescara a most excellent Soldier and Commander From de Linieres a Town in Berry the King on the Twentieth of July wrote an Answer to Alfonso telling him that he should have Respect to his Honour and Reputation and that he could not slight the Injury done to his Ambassadors if they were not restored to Liberty Many Letters pass'd betwixt du Bellay and the Marquess about that Matter but nothing else was done the Marquess protesting that after diligent Enquiry he could not discover any thing and persisting therein the King complained also to the Emperor of the Injury by his Ambassador at Ratisbone where having receiv'd an Answer not to his Mind he gave sufficient Intimation that it would prove the Cause of a War. George of Austria the natural Son of Maximilian the Emperor and Archbishop of Valentia happened at that time to be upon his Return from Spain into the Low-Countries who coming to Lyons was apprehended and committed to Prison to revenge what had been done to Fregoso and Rink Much about this time Francis the Son of Anthony Duke of Lorrain married Christian the Daughter of Christiern King of Denmark Dowager of Milan The French King was vexed at this and the more that the Year before the Duke of Lorrain's Daughter was married to Renat Prince of Orange who was wholly at the Emperor's Devotion At the same time that the Emperor held the Diet at Ratisbone King Ferdinand besieged Buda wherein was the Widow of the Vayvode John with her young Son Stephen Now the Guardians of the Child and the Nobles of the Kingdom had craved Assistance from the Turks so that the Turk sent a General with Forces who in the Month of July came to Buda whither he himself came also not long after with the rest of the Army By this means King Ferdinand's Army consisting of Germans Moravians and Bohemians were forced to raise the Siege received a great Overthrow and lost Pest a Town overagainst Buda those that remained saving themselves as well as they could by Flight About the end of August the Grand Seignior sent Presents to the Child Stephen Vests of Cloth of Gold with some stately Horses acquainting his Mother at the same time that he had a desire to see the Boy and that she should send him out to him to the Camp. She being much terrified hereat but finding no other Course to be taken and that the Nobles advised her to it sent out the poor Babe with his Nurse and a great Train of Nobility to accompany him The Turk received them very courteously but afterwards caused a Proposal to be made to the Queen's Counsellors that they would deliver up Buda to him for that they were not able to defend it against the Enemy and for him to come back again with an Army when occasion required would be both troublesom and chargeable and that therefore it would be far better to let him have the keeping of the place whilst they being afraid of their own danger had not a word to say he presently gave orders to the Aga of the Janizaries to sieze the Town and the Child was not sent back to his Mother before the thing was done Being then Masters of the Town and all the Citizens disarmed they demanded also the Castle where the Queen then was In the mean time the Turk sent Messengers to com◠〈◊〉 her and bid her be of good Courage and withal made over Transilvania to her and her Son.
lately at Ratisbone accorded some chief Articles as concerning Justification Faith and Works which were fundamental Points of Religion that they should therefore follow that Doctrine live friendly one with another and not be too apt to jangle and contend for the future That the Apostles first and afterwards the Council of Nice had left us a Symbol of Faith which all professed and that since it was so there ought to be no place for Dissensions neither ought one to slight or reproach another for that all Men had not received the same Gift from God. That without concord the State of the Empire could not be safe nor lasting especially whilst the Turk hovered over them that the Romans became Masters of the World not so much by strength and Arms as by a certain fetch of Craft and Subtlety when they made it their Business to raise and foment Strife and Divisions amongst a Nation whom they intended to subdue and to defend and support one Faction against another until they oppressed both together That by these Arts they had over-reached the Carthaginians Asians Gauls and the Greeks a People naturally fickle and mutable So also were the Germans deluded by Tiberius when they were making War in Italy that the Britains only had avoided that yoke because they understood their Arts and in common danger emptied all their intestine choler and hatred upon the Enemy of their Country That this art brought the Romans themselves to nothing at last That by the same cunning Philip of Macedon subdued all Greece having set the Athenians Corinthians Thessalonians c. together by the Ears That Ottoman the first Emperor of this Turkish Race had taken Bithynia whilst Christian Princes were at variance among themselves That upon the same occasion the Turk had at length invaded Europe conquered Thrace all Greece and the Morea nay and for Three hundred Years past had carried all before him either through the discord or treachery of the Christians That at the same time Constantinople was taken Italy was all in Combustion by the Factions of the Guelphs and Gibelins the Names of the Emperor's and Pope's Parties That it was to no purpose to mention what had lately happened to Rhodes and Hungary and upon what occasion That thus the Turks a mean obscure and barbarous People creeping out of the Holes of Scythia had grown upon the Divisions of Christians and reared their vast Empire whilst either the Greeks opened to them the Door of Europe or the faithless Genoese wafted them over the Hellespont or the Brother-Princes of the Morea Quarrelling one with another called them in to their own Destruction or those of Epirus assisted them or the Servians and Bulgarians combined with them or in short whilst the Hungarians voluntarily invited them to come That for the sake of common Liberty then ways of Concord and Agreement must be taken nor must they think that if they either sate still or were divided Foreign Nations would do their work for them That this was the King's Advice and Counsel which he entreated they would take in good part and expect from him all steady Friendship and Affection The Pope had sent his Legate thither John Morono Bishop of Modena who being desired by King Ferdinand and the Emperor's Ambassadors to acquaint them with the Pope's Mind on the Twenty third of March spoke to this Effect That when the Emperor the Year before pass'd through Italy in his Expedition to Barbary he had conferred with the Pope about the Turkish War and a Council but that it being a weighty and difficult Matter and the Emperor streightened with time nothing had been concluded but that Granvell remained behind in Italy with whom somewhat more had been treated That his Holiness indeed had always desired a Turkish War and had for that Reason used his Endeavours that all might live together in Peace That now also it was his chief Care that the Truce betwixt the Emperor and French King might be observed and that since there were diverse Reports of the Turks Preparations and that it was not certainly known to what they tended His Holiness would furnish Five thousand Foot provided the Emperor would command the Army in Person but if not half the Number and that so he had agreed with Granvell unless the State of his own private Affairs should be reduced to such Streights as that he should be obliged to demand Assistance from them That otherwise he would be ready to do all that lay in his Power having designed all he had for that Use That it had always been and still was the Intention of his Holiness that a Council should be held but that he had hitherto delayed the calling of it with the Advice and Consent both of the Emperor and King Ferdinand because it was thought some way of Agreement might in the mean time offer in Germany But that since that had been endeavoured in vain he had returned to his former Resolution however that it should be held in Germany neither his Age the distance of Place nor the Change of Air would suffer him to be present who both intended and ought to be there That besides Germany did not seem to all People to be a convenient Place and it was to be feared too least Matters might be carried disorderly there That therefore he liked better Mantua Ferrara Bolonia or Piacenza which were all very large and commodious Cities That nevertheless if these did not please he did not refuse to have it held at Trent a City upon the Confines of Germany That he had intended it should have commenced at Whitsuntide but that by reason of the shortness of the time he had put it off to the Thirteenth of August and prayed that laying aside all Grudges they would seriously prepare for it King Ferdinand and the other Catholick Princes with the Emperor's Deputies return their Thanks and if a more proper Place could not be found in Germany as Ratisbone or Cologne they profess themselves satisfied with Trent But the Protestants approved neither the Pope's Counsel nor the Place nor that it should be mentioned in the Decree and openly protested against it When the French Ambassadors found they were not like to prevail that the States were inclinable to a Turkish War and that their Presence was ungrateful and suspicious to the Imperialists they departed in some Displeasure before the end of the Diet. Trent is a Town in the Alpes upon the River Etch or Aidge under the Dominion of King Ferdinand three Days Journey from Venice and not two Days from Verona So soon as the French Ambassadors were returned home the King began to think of War And though he had in effect already restored the Admiral and conversed familiarly with him as we said before yet least some time or other it might be prejudicial to him or his Children he granted him his Letters Patents wherein he restored him to his Possessions Honour and Fame declaring that he had
and Rink chanced to be missing That however his Holiness himself who was chosen to be Umpire betwixt them was a Witness of his Willingness to have satisfied him in that Particular That this was the Pretext then he now used for raising new Troubles and Commotions in Christendom though it was long since he intended it That it was well enough known what Fregoso and Rink had by his Orders attempted in Italy and Turkey and what Services they had often done him That they went about to betray Christendom into extream Danger so that they had no right to the Peace of Nice who violated the publick Peace That again they scudded privily through Lombardie with a Train of Banditi's a Crime that 's capital by the Law and Custom of that Country That the Marquess of Pescara was heavily accused by him and yet he had offered to stand a Trial for it but that it was not unknown why he refused that and rejected other Satisfactions also That for his part when he thought he had been satified he passed over into Barbary and sent an Ambassador into France to recommend to him the publick Peace but that at the same time he gave the fairest Promises he was attempting several things against him in Germany Denmark and other places and laid a Design of invading Navarr That afterwards his Ambassadors at the Diet of Spire had made it their whole Business to foment the Difference of Religion promising each Party severally their Masters Frienship and Favour That he had endeavoured to disswade the States of the Empire from the Turkish War sollicited the Grand Seignior sent Forces into Italy caused Martin van Rossem in Brabant and Flanders and the Duke of Orleans in Luxemburg to make War against him before any Denunciation and then bent all the rest of his Forces towards the Frontiers of Spain That this forsooth was the Fruit of his Holiness's Tenderness who had indulged him in so many things and so often exhorted him to Peace That he should also suffer the Archbishop of Valentia to be detained Prisoner by him and several Noble-Men of Spain to be abused and affronted by the French in Avignon was in all Conscience too great a Forbearance That now therefore he must be forced to stand upon his own Defence at a time when he had least Fear of him by reason of his large and most ample Promises when he was preparing for the Turkish War and upon that account to return into Germany That the Injury and Damage was indeed great which he had done within his Territories and he and his Subjects both suffered by it but that he was not so much moved thereat as at the publick Calamity of Christendom for that as to his own private Concerns since he was always shuffling and breaking his Agreements it were far better for him to have open War than to trust to any Truce or Conditions which upon every light Occasion he could break and annul That Peace with him was for the most part a Snare since it was his Course in the mean time to hatch new Counsels pernicious to the Publick cherish and foment Factions and to make it his chief Study to disable him from resisting the Turks by harassing and tiring him out and exhausting him by Charges That this being his own Temper he made it his Care to bread his Children in the same Nature and Discipline That his Ambition and Covetousness was now grown to such a Hight that it could no longer be concealed That as his Ancestors had usurped Provence which belonged to the Empire so now also he held Savoy and part of Piedmont which he so fortified as made it apparent enough he had no mind to restore them That it had been his Design not only to invade Lombardy but Parma and Piacenza too then Luka and Siena and afterward the Patrimony of St. Peter that so he might have a Passage open into Naples and Sicily That there was no Doubt but his Project reached so far and that it might easily be gathered from the Designs and Stratagems he had on Foot in Italy That in short there was no Bounds to be set to his excessive Ambition nor was it ever to be thought that he would stand to any Agreement so long as there remained any thing for others to lose or for him to take For that he was so transported with this Disease and Restlesness of Mind as with a violent Calenture That forgeting all Religion and Piety he had made a League with the Turk and joined not only his Counsels but Fortunes also with the Enemy of Christendom making at this present mighty Braggs that Barbarossa with a Fleet would quickly be upon our Coasts That his Holiness in his own Prudence ought to consider if these were Courses to heal the Divisions of Christendom and begin a Council with That it had always been the Endeavours of the French King that no Council should be held as thinking it would prove prejudicial to his private Affairs Wherefore so soon as he had perceived that he had taken other Measures for composing the Differences about Religion in Germany and had therein Respect only to the Glory of God and the Honour and Dignity of the Church That therefore it was to be imputed to the French King who had always hindered and not to him who had taken so much Labour and Pains about a Council that there was not one sooner call'd That if then his Holiness were disposed to help afflicted Christendom he ought in Duty to declare himself an Enemy to him who was the Author of all the Disorder and Calamity who invited and allured in the Turk against Christendom and who left nothing unattempted whereby he might satiate his Ambition and boundless Revenge For that since the chief Care of Christianity belonged to him by virtue of his Pastoral Office the thing it self required that he should not suffer him to proceed any longer in these disorderly Courses but declare himself his Enemy That if he would do so it would not only be an Act most acceptable to all good Men but would prove of singular Use also for containing all other Kings within the Bounds of Duty For that it was the only Way to have a Council meet Peace restored and the Troubles of Christendom settled wherein if his Holiness did his duty he for his Part would not be wanting The End of the Fourteenth Book THE HISTORY OF THE Reformation of the Church BOOK XV. The CONTENTS The Pope attempts in vain to make Peace betwixt the Emperor and French King. A hot War betwixt England and Scotland The French King suppresses a Sedition at Rochell In the Diet of Nurimberg Granvell in the Emperor's Name demands assistance against the French King who in a very long Manifest answers the Emperor's Letter Langey dieth Francis Landre and de Pensier make a publick Recantation Mention made of Marot by the bye Bucer Preaches at Bonn. The Pope offers to buy the Dutchy of
Milan Philip made King of Spain The Emperor and King of England make a League against the French King. The Pope writes to the Clergy of the Cathedral of Cologne and animates them The French King takes Landrecy a small Town from the Emperor A Diet is held at Spire where the French King is so grievously accused that his Herald was dismissed with very rough Language There the Protestants lay most enormous Crimes to the Charge of Henry Duke of Brunswick There also the Duke of Savoy by his Ambassadors again accuses the French King. The Speech which the French Ambassadors were to have made in the Assembly of all the States at Spire is printed and published In the same Diet also an accord was made betwixt the Emperor King Ferdinand and the Duke of Saxony The States of the Empire vote the Emperor Money against the French King. Bulloign is besieged by the English The Town of Landrecy is taken A panick fear at Paris The Emperor makes Peace with the King of France at Soissons and the Conditions of the Peace are related WHEN the War was not hot on all Hands August the Twenty-sixth the Pope sent Legates Mediators Cardinal Michael Bishop of Viseo a Portugese to the Emperor and Cardinal James Sadoleto to the French King to intercede with them that they would sacrifice their private Injuries to the publick Good and set their Minds in Peace He sent Legates also to the Council at Trent The Emperor made Answer to the Legate of Viseo and wrote to the Pope much to the same purpose as he did in the Letter we mentioned before and therefore again moved him to declare himself the Enemy of France For that his Holiness had often protested That he would severely punish him that should violate a Truce or make a League with the Turk That that was the only solid way of settling the Peace of Christendom With this Letter he dismissed the Legate on the Eighteenth of October Because the Duke of Longueville and Martin Van Rossem had raised an Army in the Territories of the Duke of Cleve as has been mentioned before the Imperialists under the command of the Prince of Orange invade the Country of Juliers put all to Fire and Sword and upon Composition take Duren the chief Town in these Parts For the Duke of Cleve had succeeded to the Principalities of Juliers and Mons in Right of his Mother At the same time also the Imperial Army having done no Action in Hungary only in vain attempted the Siege of Pest returned Home but much weakened by the Plague that had swept away many Thousands of them Maurice Duke of Saxony served as a Voluntier in this War being a Youth of about Sixteen Years of Age who having one Day gone abroad out of the Camp with one Man only to wait upon him met accidentally and engaged some Turks where he had his Horse shot under him The Gentleman who as I told you waited on him covered him with his Body and defended him till some Horse came in to their Relief aad saved the Prince So that to save his Life he lost his own for being brought into the Camp full of Wounds he died not long after This was the issue of the Hungarian War whither the Pope had sent Three thousand Foot under the Command of Alexander Vitellio About this time a hot War broke out betwixt England and Scotland upon occasion that the Year before the King of Scots having promised to meet his Uncle the King of England at York to treat about their Borders had been disswaded by his Mother and many of the Nobility and so did not come But the Scots about the beginning of December this Year had a great defeat and many of their Nobility were taken in Battle and that of their own accord too because they dispised their General as being a Man of inferior Birth and could not endure to be Commanded by him This the King laid so much to Heart that returning Home he died of Grief the Twelfth of December after his Queen being brought to Bed of his Daughter Mary but Eight Days before which was a thing that also encreased his Melancholy seeing he had no Male-Issue living for the Year before he had lost Two Sons in two several places within the space of Twenty-four Hours His Queen was Mary the Daughter of Claude Duke of Guise of the Family of Lorrain The Scots being in this distress the French King sent them a supply of Men and Artillery After the Death of the King the Administration of the Government was put into the Hands of James Hamilton Earl of Arran the King's Cousin twice removed Next to him in power was the Cardinal of St. Andrews one much addicted to the Interest of France We have spoken before the Duke Henry of Saxony who entered into the Protestant League both in his own and Son Maurice's Name But after his Death Duke Maurice being called on upon that account made Answer That his Father could not bind for him nor was he tied by his Obligation Henry Duke of Brunswick being forced to fly his Country as was said before brings his Action against the Duke of Saxony the Lantgrace and Confederates before the Imperial Chamber who being afterwards cited to appear in the Month of December declined that Writ and Judicature in all Causes whatsoever and by their Agents under publick Intimation thereof protesting at the same time that they did not refuse a lawful and ordinary Jurisdiction but excepted against the Judges who were of a different Religion who adhered to the Decree of Ausburg made Twelve Years before and approved it upon Oath who for that reason were at great variance with them and bore malice against them who looked upon them as Hereticks thinking that Justice was not to be administred unto them and who had many times given manifest indications of this their prejudice and aversion It had been decreed in the Diet of Ratisbone that in the Month of January this Year the Imperial Chamber should be reformed To this Decree the Protestants assented provided Men of their perswasion might be admitted to that Bench which the Emperor granted to them as we said before and King Ferdinand afterward renewed in the Diet of Spire appointing that Reformation to be made in the Month of June whereby he had obtained Supplies from them for the Turkish War. For unless that were done they publickly then protested That they would not only contribute no more to the Charges of the Chamber but also not obey the Orders of that Court. Since therefore nothing had as yet been done in that matter they sent Agents as I told you with Instructions to decline and protest against the Judicature But the Judges of the Imperial Chamber in a publick Writing afterward rejected their declinatory Protestation It was decreed in the late Diet of Nurimberg That because of the Turkish War the States should assemble there again on the
Calumny That if the Emperor would not refuse a Peace they promised to assist him as also the Bohemians who had written to them in February and the Germans against the Turk That as for themselves some of them were indeed bound in Articles to serve the French King in his Wars But that some others had only for many Years entertained Amity with him and that if any run into France out of their Territories it was against their Knowledge or Consent as it might happen also in other places of Germany That after all they thought it advisable to give Audience to the King's Ambassadors and conclude a Peace wherein if they could contribute any thing they were very willing to do it At that time the King of England sent a great Fleet into Scotland who meeting with fair Weather arrived there soon after and took first Leeth a considerable Sea Port Town and then Edinborough the chief City of Scotland which because the Castle held out and could not be taken they burnt This happened in the beginning of the Month of May. In this Diet the Emperor in publick and solemn manner inaugurated Wolfgang Master of Prussia conferring upon him the Arms and Honours of that Magistracy which for many Years past had been possessed by Albert of Brandenburg the Brother of Casimire and George who marrying a Wife usurped it to himself and was therefore Outlawed by the Imperial Chamber Twelve Years before as we mentioned already However Sigismund King of Poland defended him as being his Feudatory and Vassal And when another was now installed as we said his Ambassador publickly protested against it as unlawful and that it should not derogate from the Right of his Master the King of Poland of whom the Land of Prussia held in Fiefe The Ambassadors of Hungary having given a Relation of their Misfortune and Loss the Year before implored the Assistance of the Empire for that now they were reduced to the last push and should they be deserted would take the Course that Men in Dispair commonly do and which no Body can blame them for That they would submit to the worst of Conditions nay and to Bondage too rather than run voluntarily into Ruine and Destruction whilst their Neighbours stood by and look'd on as Idle Spectators We told you before that the French Kings Herald was sent back from Spire without effecting any thing When therefore the Ambassadors returned Home they published in Print the Speech which they were to have made in the Assembly of the States They begin with complemental Insinuations to curry Favour affirming both Nations to have been Originally one and the same and that nothing could befal Germany but France must be affected therewith Then they wipe off the Imputations of their Enemies That the King did now disturb Christendom with another War and had made a League with the Turk using a wheadling Preface to stroak and claw the Emperor the former War they say was first begun because their King could not obtain from the Duke of Savoy his Mother's Inheritance and that this last because contrary to the Law of Nations his Ambassadors had been Murthered That the King had no League with the Turk nor any traty but only for Trade and publick Peace sake such as the Venetians Polonians and some other People had Though if there were any League betwixt them it could not be objected as a Crime since the same thing had been anciently done by Abraham and David Solomon and Phineas the Children of Tobias and the Macchabees And since that also by the Emperors Honorius Constantine Theodosius the Younger Justinian the Second Paleologus Leo Frederick the First and Second who made use of the Assistance of Nations of a different Religion And that Frederick the Second was upon the very Shoulders of the Saracens carried back again into Italy out of which he had been driven by the Popes That they themselves knew what Forces and Aid the King had oftner than once promised to send to the Turkish War the Truth whereof could be amply attested both by the Pope and College of Cardinals That if the Turk had invaded Hungary upon occasion of the Quarrel that arose about the Government and that being afterwards more provoked by the War in Barbary and the taking of Tunis he had lately sent a Fleet upon the Coast of Italy the King was not to be blamed therefore That it made nothing to the purpose that Paulain the King's Minister was on Board in that Fleet for that Barbarossa's Design was to find out and be Revenged on his Enemy Andrea Doria but that failing therein he had of his own Head besieged the Castle of Nizza That the King indeed had a Truce with the Turk as he had told them at another time which was both honourable and hurtful to no Man That he could not now be charged with that as a Crime since many times and that lately too the greatest of Men had desired it That the King was extreamly grieved at the afflicted State of Christendom but that the only way of restoring Peace was for the Emperor to give back to the King what by all Law and Justice belonged to him That if they would bring this about the King would spare neither Labour Rest nor Danger to defend Germany from all foreign Violence In the former Books you have been told that the Duke of Saxony would not acknowledge Ferdinand for King of the Romans Now in this Diet the matter was in the Month of May accommodated and the Duke promised to honour him accordingly The Emperor on the other Hand ratified the Marriage contracted betwixt the Duke of Saxony and the Family of Cleve which till then he had constantly refused to do and if the Duke of Cleve should die without Male issue he confirmed his Succession to the Duke of Saxony who had married his Sister and to the Heirs Male procreated of their Bodies But upon this Condition if there were no Difference in Religion when the Case happened As a closer Link of Friendship too King Ferdinand with the Emperor's Consent betrothed his Daughter the Lady Eleanor to the Duke of Saxony's eldest Son if he proved right in Relgion before she were Marriageable This last thing was a great Secret and kept under profound Silence on both sides insomuch that neither the Lantgrave nor his Confederates knew any thing of it for the matter was contracted by a few Counsellors to wit Granvell for the Emperor Hoffman for King Ferdinand and Pontane and Burcart for the Duke of Saxony The King of Denmark also sent Ambassadors and made a final Agreement with the Emperor having all the Winter long and till then kept an Army on foot against future Contingences He seemed to have forsaken the Amity of France because of the Report of the Turkish League for the Ambassadors expressed little less when they discoursed more familiarly with their Friends Let us now return to
through Christ That Christ by his Death made satisfaction for our Sins That God doth impute Faith for Righteousness these things he proved and illustrated by Testimonies from Scripture shew'd wherein he agreed and wherein he differed from Malvenda and confuted his Arguments Billick the Carmelite seconded Malvenda and amongst other things refuted what Bucer had said of Justification denying that it had been ever adjusted February the thirteenth Malvenda answered Bucer and concluded these three points that Works do dispose and prepare for Justification that Charity is the form of Righteousness that the Works of men justified consummate Justification and deserve Eternal Life Whilest these things were under debate February the fifteenth the Emperour's Letters are brought to the Doctors wherein he enjoyns them that Julius Pflugg Bishop of Hamburg should be admitted amongst the Presidents that the number both of the Discoursers and Witnesses should not be encreased by supernumeraries that no Clarks should take the Acts in Writing but such as should be appointed by the Presidents that all should take an Oath of Secrecy and not to disclose the Affairs of the Conference to any Man living till they were reported to the Emperour and States of the Empire that what was agreed upon should be subscribed by both Parties but what remained still under controversie should be marked down in as few words as might be relating only in general the chief Points that were thereupon urged by either party and be given to the Clarks to be kept When the Letter was read the Protestants desired time to consider and in their Answer of the second of March say that they were not displeased with the third President provided their Princes also approved him Then they demanded leave to prosecute their Answers which were not as yet finished that the Point concerning the former Accommodation at Ratisbonne might be inserted into the Journals that John Pistorius might be continued Clark and that many Questions might not in debating be confusedly propounded at one and the same time but that one after another handled in order But that as to the Point of so strict a Secrecy they could not oblige themselves to it since it was part of their Instructions that from time they should acquaint their Principles with the state of the Conference These things were long and much debated whil'st the Presidents on the one hand alledged that the Emperour's Commands must be obeyed and the Protestants on the other that they could not recede from the Instructions of their Princes so that the Presidents at length signified to the Emperour in Writing what they demanded In the mean time the Duke of Saxony who approved not the Conditions of the Conference when he came to know them recalled his Deputies that he might examine the whole Affair These being gone Bucer also that he might make a Report of what was done to the Landgrave departed March the twentieth This extreamly vexed the Presidents who as they had before advised those who were present to stay so now some having dropt off they most earnestly dealt with and intreat the rest that remained by all means to expect the Emperour's Answer but they excused themselves saying that there was no staying for them now the chief of their Colleagues were gone but that if the Conference continued they should be ready upon all occasions for the future The Papists afterwards published Books wherein they bitterly enveighed against them for this matter But Bucer sometime after fully answered all their Reproaches and handled at large all that can be said of Man's Justification The Embassadours of the Prince Palatine and Elector of Brandenburg joyned with the Embassadours of the Protestants who were sent to the Emperour to intercede for the Archbishop of Cologne The sum of their desire was that the Emperour would refer the Archbishop's Cause to the rest of the Causes of Religion and annul the Action commenced by the Clergy of Cologne against him seeing that if any violence were offered to him they could not desert him They had their Audience of the Emperour at Utricht the six and twentieth day of February and March the second he sent them his Answer by Naves that hitherto he had shew'd him all good will that both personally and by his Embassadours he had admonished him that he would behave himself fairly and tolerably towards the Clergy and other States of the Archbishoprick which was no more but his Duty but that though he had given great hopes and was very free in promises yet slighting all these things he had acted so violently that for the protection and safety of the whole Province and his own Reputation 's sake he was necessitated to apply a Remedy and that truly a very mild and lawful one which he would not have made use of neither but that having in vain tried all other courses with him he would not yet so much as defer until the ensuing Diet at Ratisbonne but went on in contempt of all his Edicts and Commands trusting to a certain frivolous Appeal which was neither admitted by any body nor could in any manner take place that if he had had a mind to make use of that refuge it had been but just that he had been quiet in the mean while and waited for his and the States of the Empire 's decision but that when he refused to do so it behoved him to put a stop to his career and that he had weighty and good grounds for his so doing nor did he doubt but that if they knew the whole matter they would be of the same opinion since it was well known to them how mildly and gently he had ever behaved himself in all the common causes of the Empire and how sollicitous he had been for the publick good That nevertheless he took in good part this Embassie as thinking it might contribute to the peace and reconciliation of Religion that therefore if the Archbishop would desist and obey his Orders no man should have any cause to find fault with his conduct and that in the ensuing Diet he would make use of the Councils of the Princes and States in that particular that it was his desire the Princes should laying aside all excuses come to it in person that he himself was ready to set out upon this Journey and that though he was hindred by his health nevertheless that once for all an end might be put to their Controversies he would decline no labour nor trouble We told you before that the Council was appointed to meet at Trent the fifteenth of March the Year before Thither the Pope sent his Legates John Maria de Monte Marcello Cervino and Reginald Pool an English-man all Cardinals Thither also came in behalf of the Emperour but not at the day appointed James Mendoza a Spaniard who having made a large Speech in praise of the Emperour and of his great Zeal and good Intentions towards the Church
any Confederacy with them That since it was so then and that they were convinced of his Intentions and of the Cause of the War he was very confident that they would reject their League keep their Men at home recal those that were already in the Service under severe Penalties and in nothing act contrary to the ancient Leagues and Alliances but according to the example of the rest be still and live in peace and friendship which would redound to their own praise and be very acceptable to him To these Letters they make Answer in the same manner as we said before they answered the Embassadour and beseech his Majesty to take in good part their delay and that because he assures them that by that War there was nothing intended against the Liberty of their Country and their Religion they also on their parts would do what was fit and becoming them that if any were gone from amongst them to the Wars it was in no ways by permission from them but that they went privately as many times they had done before however that it was not their Custome to recall those who went into foreign Service without their privity and consent but to punish them when they came home again The Landgrave and Duke of Saxony sollicited the Bohemians as well as the Suitzers but these answer in such a manner that it might easily appear their minds were already prepossessed with the Calumnies of King Ferdinand When the Protestants perceived that by their Letters they write an Answer about the latter end of August assuring them That Religion was the thing aimed at by the War they send them also the Declarations published by them upon that subject desire of them that they would commit no Hostilities against them and that they would signifie unto them what their Intentions and Inclinations were At the same time also they publish a Declaration importing that they were informed by credible Persons that the Pope that Roman Antichrist the Instrument of Satan and the Author of this War who caused many places to be set on Fire in Saxony had now suborned Poysoners to infect their Wells and Standing-waters that what Fire and Sword did not Poyson might destroy Wherefore they give warning to all especially to their own Subjects to use all endeavours to Take and Apprehend those Emissaries put them to the Rack and punish them severely when their Crime should be made out Some days after the Elector's Son John William by publick Letters warns his Country-men that they have a special care of themselves for that at Weimur a Town in Thuringe an Italian had been lately apprehended upon suspition who had confessed That he and some others had received Mony at Rome in the Pope's Name to do all the Mischief they could in Germany by Fire and Poyson We spoke of the Proscription and Imperial Ban before and how that a Copy of the Instrument thereof was sent to the Duke of Saxony and Landgrave So soon then as they had received this from the Camp at Ingolstadt for their Honour and Reputation sake they frame a large Answer which they published on the second of September That he so highly commended his Zeal and Affection towards Germany was nothing but dissimulation for that from the very time of his Inauguration it had been his whole design to bring it into Bondage That that indeed was the reason why leaving Spain and his other Provinces he had so often returned into Germany and been at so vast Charges that what he said of Religion was of the same sort it having been always his purpose with the first opportunity of time to suppress the true and Reformed Doctrine So often say they as he hath given Peace to us and our Religion it was cunningly done by him to serve a turn only till we had contributed Mony for the publick Concerns of the Empire that afterwards he had called the Decrees that were made in question and kept the matter in suspence until in the mean time he might make Peace with France and a Truce with the Turk and till the Pope and he waiting for a fit opportunity might call that same Council of Trent and enter into League together We will now give some instances for the proof of this Five years since he made a Decree at Ratisbonne concerning Religion and when that Decree did not satisfie us in very many things he declared his mind more fully and for our security and satisfaction gave us an explanation of it in Writing which afterwards his Commissioners and King Ferdinand confirmed in another Diet but when two years ago mention was made of that in the Diet of Spire he did not call to mind he said that Declaration In the Diet of Wormes the year before the Bishop of Hildesheâ—â— said openly in presence of the Princes That he had past his Word to the Catholicks That the Decree of Spire should be of no force after the War with France were over Some Months since when he was going to the Diet at Ratisbonne Granvell told me in presence of the Elector Palatine some Counsellers of mine and of the Duke of Wirtemberg's Embassadours said the Landgrave That that Decree of Spire was accommodated only to the times but that now the Emperour could not justifie it to the rest of the States Six years ago when King Ferdinand declared his Instructions to the Catholick States at Haguenaw he said That no Decrees were to be observed to us for that they were made in time of the Turkish War when there was need of our assistances What! Does not this seem to be a pretty fetch for circumventing us and our associates they themselves confess it to have been a trick whereby they squeezed Money from us It is plain then that he hath always been contriving the destruction of our Religion as the League lately made demonstrates and that he waited only for a fit opportunity of accomplishing it Now that he might seem to have a lawful pretext he always dealt with us that we would submit to the Council but why we could not do so our printed Papers sufficiently declare It was all along his design to maintain the Decrees of the Council and to put them in execution for the accomplishment whereof he long before sollicited the assistance of some Foreign Princes but fearing lest by that means he might stir up against him all that espoused the Cause of Religion he devised another colour and feigned a Rebellion that he might divide the Confederates and having suppressed the chief of them constrain the rest afterwards to submit to his pleasure And though he and his Brother laboured with great Care to conceal this their cunning and crafty Councels yet through God's great blessing it came more and more to light daily for the Pope himself by his Nuncio informed the Suitzers both of the Cause of the War and gave them a Copy of the League whence it is evident that not
should invade his Cousin's Lands his own Province was in danger of suffering greatly thereby that they themselves knew how unsafe it was that strangers should get footing in those places That in consideration of all those things he desired both in his own and his Brother Augustus his name that they would seriously weigh the matter and assist him with their Aid and Counsel he on his part assuring them that what lay in his power according to his duty he would do for them The matter being debated it was concluded that the Elector of Saxony and Landgrave should be made acquainted with the Emperour's Commands and King Ferdinand's Preparations and that both should be dealt with that for the avoiding the calamities of War they would suffer their Provinces to be possessed by Duke Maurice which seemed to be all that could be done with honour and safety Therefore October the 11th they write to both separatly relating all that had past the Counsel they had given in the beginning of the War the Commands of the Emperour the Preparations of King Ferdinand and the Bohemians what Duke Maurice had done to take off King Ferdinand and then acquaint them that forreign Souldiers being now upon the Borders of Saxony the Country was in extream danger that they heartily lamented the present state of affairs but that since they understood that all was done by the Emperour's order who had secur'd them as to their Religion they could not resist him who was chief Magistrate over all that since then they were so closely linked together in interest that if any injury were done to the one the other must needs suffer by it they had long considered the matter and thought that the only safe way and expedient that now remained would be for them to suffer Duke Maurice to take possession of their Provinces for that by that means a forreign War would be staved off Religion secured and when all things were again in peace and quiet they would far more easily recover them from him than out of the hands of others That they would therefore seriously weigh the matter with themselves and comply with this Advice which was the best that could be given in these troublesome and distracted times They likewise by Letters besought the Landgrave that he would perswade the Elector to embrace the counsel Duke Maurice wrote also to the Landgrave his Father-in-law to the same purpose and that because forreign Souldiers were at hand it behoved him to take care that Saxony should not be wasted He then expresses a great deal of friendship and good will towards him assuring him That he coveted nothing of what was his that the King of Poland offered also to intercede with the Emperour as his Embassadour had informed him that he begg'd of him therefore to comply and not suffer himself to be exasperated by any words that he would incline the Elector of Saxony to do the like and not refuse to submit to the Emperour that this was the only Door left open for reconciliation and that he would not be wanting to contribute all that lay in his power to bring things to happy issue John William Son to the Elector of Saxony hearing of the Preparations of King Ferdinand sent Embassadours to the Convention of States at Friburg desiring of Duke Maurice that upon account of their Hereditary Alliance he would joyn in Arms with him to free their common Country from danger Duke Maurice made answer That he had spared no pains in endeavouring to accommodate matters but seeing that his labour was in vain and that now his Neighbours were in Arms he could not act any thing against the chief Magistrate who was excepted in that ancient Alliance It was late before the Confederates had intelligence of the Emperour 's marching to Donawert which we spake of before Next day they resolve to march and that in the night-time too to Lawgingen which is a Town upon the Danube three miles above Donawert But it being uncertain whether the Emperour was marched or not and that if they went to Lawgingen and he at their back some said there was danger lest he should take Nordlingen and then by Remserthal fall into the Dutchy of Wertemberg they altered their resolution and continued a day longer where they were Scherteline was displeased at this and some things else wherefore going to Ausbourg from whence he was sent out into the War he carries off the Garrison that was at Lawgingen and returned no more to the Camp. In the mean time the Emperour removing from Donawert has Dilingen and Hochsterit and shortly after Lawgingen and Gundelfinghen upon the River Brent surrendered unto him So that being Master of the Danube he had many advantages for action and leaving a Garrison in Lawgingen he past the Brent and encamped near the Village of Southeim in his way to Ulm three miles distant When the Protestants had intelligence that the Emperour was marching to Ulm they remove their Camp at length October the 13th and next day come to Gienghen a Town upon the same River not far above Southeim so that the River run betwixt the two Armies So soon as they had halted but not as yet pitched their Tents there they discover some Horse upon a neighbouring Hill. Amongst these was the Emperour himself who with the Duke of Alva was come out to view the Enemy The Duke of Saxony commanded the Van that day and with all hast makes towards the enemy sending the Landgrave word instantly to follow after but seeing the Enemy retreated he slackened his pace and waited for the Landgrave upon the Hill. There again as it was thought they lost a fair opportunity of doing their work for the River could not be foarded over and there was but one Bridge thereabouts so that though the Emperour might perhaps have escaped yet the chief Officers would have been hard put to it which they themselves as it is said afterwards confessed But the Emperour now altering his mind of marching to Ulm lest the Enemy being left behind his back he might lose the advantage of the Danube took another course and October the 15th planted an Ambush of three hundred Musketeers in a neighbouring Wood. The Prince of Sulmona was afterward sent out with some light Horse to skirmish who having engaged a Party of the Enemy and feigning to flie he drew them into the Ambush so that the Musketeers rushing forth out of the Wood began to ply them very warmly The Landgrave observing that hastened to the relief of his Party which consisted but of four Troops of Horse and so both were engaged in a brisk Dispute which lasted till night the great Guns all the while playing also In the mean time the Duke of Saxony staid with the Army that he might defend the Camp if the Emperour should in that Hurly-burly offer to attack them This first Stratagem not succeeding the Emperour orders another
Scriptures and Doctrine of the Fathers without prejudice or affection and that they themselves should be heard to the full Then other Decrees are read over as it is customary especially that concerning Religion and all are strictly charged to obey it as was before declared May the Fifteenth We named before the three Authors of the Book called the Interim One of them John Islebius had liberal Rewards both from the Emperour and King Ferdinand for his pains but Michael Sidonius got afterward the Bishoprick of Mensburg in Saxony this gave occasion to some to joke upon them and say that they only maintained amongst other things the Popish Chrisme and Oyl to be used as sacred and necessary to Salvation that they themselves might come off the better greased Not long after the Emperour sent his Letters to the Princes that were absent especially to those who seemed most to stand in need of it commanding them forthwith to obey that Decree And July the Tenth he wrote to Erasmus Bishop of Strasburg to use endeavours that that which with so much labour and pains he had brought about should be put into execution and that if he wanted fit Men he should provide himself somewhere else The Report of this Decree was soon spread abroad far and near And the Venetians July the Nineteenth publish a Proclamation charging all who had Books containing any thing contrary to the Catholick Faith to bring them in within eight days to some certain Men appointed for that afterwards inquisition would be made and such as deserved be punished promising Reward and Secresie to Informers The Pope hath a Legat or Nuncio always there as in the Courts of Princes also these see and hear with the Eyes and Ears of many and are often the Causes why Decrees of that nature are made But the Senate of Venice useth this Circumspection that they suffer not the Romish Bishops and Inquisitors to be sole Judges but always joyn with them the Governours of Places and Lawyers to Examine the Evidences and take care that no Sentence pass against any Man within their Jurisdiction out of malice or for love of gain They made this Law in the year 1521. when in the Country of Brescia the Inquisitors tyrannised cruelly over poor Wretches as if they had been Sorcerers and in Compact with the Devil And now when the Doctrine of Luther had taken deep rooting and was spread far and near that Law was in force still whatever the Papist muttered who would have it abrogated Much about this time the King of France sent Auxiliary Forces into Scotland against the English and amongst these some Germans under the Conduct of the Rhinegrave But the Emperour Proscribes Hubert Count Bichling and Sebastian Scherteline in one and the same Proclamation and not long after the Rhinegrave Count Heideck Pecrod and Pifeberg beseeching all Foreign Princes not to entertain nor protect them but to gratifie him in that particular and assuring them that they might expect the like from him when occasion offered The Duke of Vendosme a Prince of the Royal Blood of France Married the Lady Jane Daughter to the King of Navarre who seven years before had been betrothed and given to the Duke of Cleve as has been said Eleanor the Emperours Sister Queen Dowager of France leaves France and goes to live in the Netherlands The Duke of Aumale Son to the Duke of Guise after he had long courted the Duchess of Lorrain the Emperours Sisters Daughter Married the Daughter of Hercules Duke of Ferrara About that time Louis d' Avila a Spaniard wrote the History of the Emperours Wars in Germany in the vulgar Language which was afterwards Translated into Italian Latin and French where he speaketh of the taking of Marquess Albert he saith That he minded his pleasures so much with Women that he neglected his Duty and misbehaved himself at Nochlitz Though the Emperour had given most strict charge that no Man should in any manner impugne the Book that was published about Religion nevertheless several Pieces came abroad that confuted all the Doctrine contained in it and admonished Man to beware of it as a most dangerous Plague Amongst these was Caspar Eagle Minister of the Church of Salfield in Thuringe The occasion of Writing was given by Islebius who was upon his way home from Ausburg and bragg'd mightily of that Book saying That a Golden Age was now at hand and that Eagle had also assented to it When this came to his Ears he wrote a most bitter Answer giving him the Lye and affirming the Book to be stuffed with false Doctrines In France also Robert Bishop of Auranches wrote against it but upon a different account and rejected the same chiefly because it allowed Marriage to Priests and the Sacrament in both Kinds to the Laity where taking occasion by the way he bitterly inveighs against Bucer for Marrying a second Wife Romey also General of the Order of St. Dominick wrote against it for the same Reasons at Rome So that the little Book was found fault with by both sides The Emperour had sent an Ambassadour to the City and State of Norimberg to persuade them to submit to the Decree that was made On his way thither he solicited the Sons of the Duke of Saxony to the same purpose but they all resolutely refused Upon his return he gave the Emperour a full account of his Negotiation Wherefore the Emperour makes his application again to the Captive Prince complaining of his Sons that not only they rejected the Decree lately made but also suffered the Ministers to rail against it in their Pulpits and Writings wherefore he desires him to use his Authority with them that they would give him satisfaction as to both these Points To this he makes Answer That he had lately satisfied Granvell and the Bishop of Arras why he himself did not approve the Doctrine of the published Book which being so he would not persuade his Sons to do that which he could not with a good Conscience do himself that he earnestly besought him to take it in good part and to favour both him and his Sons with his protection This constancy of his and singular fortitude of Mind in bearing Adverse Fortune purchased him the Love and Esteem of all Men. As the States of Bremen and Magdenberg were the only People in Saxony who were not reconciled to the Emperour so were also those of Constance that border upon the Switzers the only in Upper Germany but at length having obtained a safe Conduct they send Deputies to Ausburg to Negotiate a Peace The Emperour proposed very hard Conditions to them and amongst these that they should receive the Publick Book and conform their Religion unto it The Deputies desire some mitigation of the Conditions but that was in vain and they are commanded to bring their Answer by a day prefixt The Senate being made
also preached no more after that pretending Sickness April the first Duke Maurice and his Associates besieged Ausburg and three days after took iâ— by surrender as shall be related in the following Book April the fifth the Ambassadours of Wirtemberg being sent for came to the House of Don Francisco de Toledo taking with them as they had been enjoyned two Divines Brentius and John Marbach of Strasburg The Ambassadour Poictieres spoke and told them first That the Ambassadours had been very zealous in pursuing the common concern but then that because of the Sickness of the Legate Crescentio neither his Collegues nor the Fathers would act any thing in his absence Lastly that it was not their fault if no progress were made and that they would not omit any thing for the future that might contribute to the furthering of business and of this he made a protestation The others having consulted together made answer That they were very sensible of their Zeal and the diligence they had used but that they had expected something else and a more certain Answer to their Demands to have been communicated to those that sent them But that now since the matter was so they were to take the next course With that the Ambassadours replied That he did not intend by what he said nor was he to be so understood as if there remained no more hopes of acting That it was well done in them and according to Duty to acquaint their Magistrates with the whole state of Affairs Nor did he doubt but that when they should come to hear of all they would both wonder at this delay and cessation and take it ill But that however he pray'd them patiently to bear the tediousness of a few days more That in the mean time they would endeavour that they should have a plain and positive answer To which they made answer That for their sakes they were very willing to do so Next day Messengers and Letters came post haste with the news of Ausburg's being taken and that the Princes were marching streight towards the Alpes to possess themselves of the Passes and stop all the ways Whereupon the Militia was raised all over the Country of Tirol and Soldiers listed with Orders to Muster at Inspruck All the German Bishops were now gone none remained but the Proxies of the Bishops of Spire and Munster when this news was brought the Italian Bishops presently fled for it carrying their Goods by Water down the River Adige So that the Wirtemberg Ambassadours started thereat and seeing that the Council broke up of their own accord they went to the Emperours Ambassadours and acquainted them that they also and the Divines were resolved to return home They seemed much against it at first and told them That until they knew the Emperours pleasure therein they could not consent to it But when they could not prevail they desired to have the reasons of their departure given them in Writing that they might excuse themselves to the Emperour and the Fathers The Ambassadour Poictieres put the question also that if after they were gone the Fathers did proceed to action what would the Divines say To which the Ambassadours having consulted with the Divines said That they would answer it and so April the eighth in the Morning they delivered to them the Writing they required Therein they declared when the Confession of Divines was exhibited wherefore the Divines came How they had in vain solicited till then to have had answer to their demands How to that very day there had been no hopes of any future action That now also a War was broken out so that not only the German Bishops but the Italians also went away and that all the States were so involved in troubles that there was nothing to be expected at present That they did not think it prudent neither to make any progress in the absence of the Roman Bishops That if hereafter that Affair happened to be duely and orderly treated they supposed their Prince would not be wanting That it was the Opinion of the Divines that many Decrees had been made both in this and in the former Council which could not but be found fault with if they were brought under a lawful Examination That if the Fathers should now proceed it was credible that the same course would be taken That nevertheless if perhaps either the Decrees already made should be corrected or that such things should afterwards be decreed as were agreeable to the holy Scriptures they made no doubt but they would be embraced with most willing and obedient Minds That that would be most acceptable to them as had been demonstrated in some places of the Confession exhibited Which Writing they both judged to be pious and would be ready to explain it more fully when occasion called for it That therefore they prayed them to take their departure in good part That they had liberty indeed granted them by the safe conduct to depart thence whensoever they pleased and were not obliged to give any Man a reason for their so doing but that the many civilities they had received from them obliged them not to baulk that small Duty such as it was So then they took their leave and departed in the Afternoon and a few hours after they met upon the rode the Cardinal of Trent coming post from Brixen to his own City who being informed That they belonged to Wirtemberg asked who was Brentius and spoke to him most courteously We said before that the Fathers did nor all look one way The Spanish Bishops indeed seemed the most active and diligent of all Some of the Germans also pretended that there was great need of Reformation But this was the mind of those who all entertained the best thoughts that Ecclesiastical Discipline and Manners should be reformed That Luxury Ambition and Examples of impure and dishonest Lives should be removed that every one should mind his own Cure and that no single person should enjoy more Livings than one Besides they had it in their thoughts as it should seem to confine the Popes Power within certain bounds and not allow his Court so much Authority and Jurisdiction over all Provinces These and some other things they comprehended under the name of Reformation and acknowledging that they belonged properly unto them and required amendment But as to Doctrine they neither owned themselves guilty of any Error nor would they allow that a Council could err and believed that their Adversaries would be at length forced to come over and obey the Council as appeared plainly enough from the French Kings Letter and the form of the safe Conduct It confirmed them in this Hope and Opinion that they thought there were not many Professors of that Doctrine remaining the most part being either dead or banished as it has been said of Schwabia It was the common talk there too that within a few Months all Matters relating to Doctrine would be
those conditions of Peace which they had so sollicitously sought out and Collected especially since the chief of them had been approved at Lintz which Treaty they had proposed to themselves as a Pattern to be followed as also since those things which properly belonged to his Dignity and Character had been purposely referred to a Diet of the Empire that there they might be handled more conveniently and with greater Moderation The same day this was done Duke Maurice departed and when on the eleventh of July he was come to the Confederates who then encamped at Mergetheins he told them what had been done and that King Ferdinand was gone to the Emperor in great haste so that he believed he would speedily send Commissioners with a full and definite Answer However that in this doubtful state of Affairs they might not be idle and because in Franckfurt there was an Imperial Garrison of seventeen hundred Foot and a thousand Horse under the Command of Conrad Hanstein so that Hesse that bordered upon it was in no small danger it was resolved that they should march thither Having then burnt and plundered and done a great deal of damage to Wolffgang Master of Prussia in whose Countrey they then were they marched through the Arch-Bishop of Mentz his Territories and on the Seventeenth of July came before Franckfurt But immediately upon that the Princes Intercessors and the Ambassadors sent their Agents after Duke Maurice to the Camp to sweeten things and promote the Peace In that Siege George Duke of Meckleburg having joyned Duke Maurice the same who first of all made War against the Magdeburgers was shot with a Cannon-Bullet So soon as the Siege was laid down before Franckfurt the Confederate Princes demanded a great many great Guns from the Elector Palatine which once and again he denied them But when he could not do otherwise and they threatned to come and fetch them with an Army he gave them Eight of the best he had with all their Equipage King Ferdinand at the prefixed day returning to Passaw declared to the Mediators the Emperor's Will and Pleasure as to the several Points to wit that as to publick Matters of the Empire which Duke Maurice had proposed as we said before they should not be handled by some few Commissioners apart but by the whole Body of the Empire met in a Diet. Again That the Cause of Religion should rest till the next Diet of the Empire And that what should be thought fit to be done in that particular for the future by all the States in that Diet should be ratified and confirmed The Emperor also July the eleventh gave this Answer to the Mediators last Letter That as they had by their Letter so King Ferdinand his Brother had also very earnestly dealt with him that he would accept of the Conditions and thus he would willingly indeed have gratified both of them but that there were many Causes that hindred him which he had declared unto his Brother for he could not approve and ratifie all indifferently Now that some had underservedly fallen into calamity through the occasion of these Troubles no man living was more sorry for it than he that yet their Sufferings were not to be imputed to their confidence and relying upon him since he had put no man into such hopes as he might securely trust to For that though when the Stirs did first break out he had written to some of the chief Princes that they would endeavour to prevent that growing Evil promising them his best concurrence yet it was not his mind to approve of every thing that might be propounded That it seemed indeed reasonable to him that such things as concerned the Empire in general should be referred to the publick Diets thereof wherein if any just complaint should be by any man brought against him he would not be wanting to that Duty which hitherto he had never neglected That since no Demand of that Nature had ever been presented to him as yet which nevertheless ought to have been done before any War had been attempted he could not divine what would be demanded of him and much less give Instructions to his Ambassadors whom he sent to Passaw what they should answer to every Head which for the dignity of his Person and Character he thought it not fit to do personally That if therefore he approved not all things which some perhaps endeavoured to perswade them to do no man ought to censure him for that but that they who were the Mediators ought rather to encline and exhort them to reasonable and moderate Conditions especially since they were sensible that hardly at last and not before he was forced to it by necessity he had taken up Arms which he intended not to make use of now neither if he might chuse and if they could hit upon an equitable and proper Expedient for Peace That since the Case was so he was very confident that they would shew all Duty and Allegiance to him who was their chief Magistrate rather than listen to those who contrary to Duty had made a League with his Enemies and raised Stirs and Commotions That he was not ignorant of the Evils and Calamities that did impend when both Armies should be ready to joyn in Battel and that he was very much moved at the Damages sustained by the State but especially by the innocent People wherefore he did now as at all times before set his mind on Peace and would not refuse any reasonable Overture but that he was not at all to be charged with this That whilst he was deliberating about the Conditions sent to him at two several times some of the States had sustained wrongs for that the Truce was to have lasted all the time of the Treaty That Marquess Albert during the same time damnified several sorts of People he was not to answer for it since from the very beginning he had been against the Treaty That neither had he ever made any delay in answering and if they had continued still on the same sort as they proposed at first but altered since he could have answered much sooner and more distinctly too nay if they had not swerved from the Treaty of Lintz which they themselves mentioned all things might have been longe're now accommodated That since they were sensible then how he stood affected towards the Publick he instantly required them that together with his Brother King Ferdinand unto whom he had discovered all his mind they would induce them to reasonable Conditions and therein have respect both to the Safety and Dignity of the Empire That he for his part was resolved to use the same Lenity and peaceable Ways in time to come as utterly abhorring all Civil War But that if Peace could not be had on these Terms he expected from them all the Fruits of Allegiance that they were obliged to render unto him King Ferdinand made Answer also in the Emperor's Name to
stayed at Dedehove a Town upon the Mosell four Miles below Metz on the twentieth of November came into the Camp. Then chiefly began the Town to be furiously Battered so that the Guns were heard not only at Strasburg but also four Miles beyond the Rhine and Strasburg is eighteen long Miles distant from Metz. Duke Maurice who as I said went with his Army into Hungary for the service of King Ferdinand returned Home about this time and now was Volrate Count Mansfield the Son of Count Albert engaged in War with Henry Duke of Brunswick and had almost driven him quite out of his Country Duke Henry therefore came to the Emperor in the Camp before Metz and there having bewailed his bad Fortune begged Assistance but that proved to be at an unseasonable time Now Mansfield served under Marquess Albert whilst he was still on the French side Whilst the Emperor besieged Metz Wolffgang Master of the Teutonick Order took the Town of Elwang There is a very rich Colledge there which for many Months he coveted after and seeing they of the House have the right of chusing their Superiour whom they call Provost and that they had chosen one of a Noble Family in Exclusion of him he for Grief and Anger at the Disappointment came and suddenly surprised the Place This coming to the Duke of Wirtemberg's Ears whose Assistance was implored by the Fellows as being the Protector of their Rights and Liberties he quickly got together his Men and coming in the Winter time easily regained it taking a Town or two besides from him which he resolved to keep in his Hands until he should be repayed the Charges of the War. The French who were besieged made many Sallies especially upon Marquess Albert's Quarters and amongst others Lichtemberg whom I named before was grievously Wounded The Winter was very Cold with much Frost and Snow and though the Emperor had a vast Army yet he abstained from storming the Place and carried on the Siege by Mines but that was a vain Attempt when both the time of the Year was a great hindrance to it and the Enemy also had Intelligence thereof by Spies The Officers who defended the Town were Gentlemen of noble Families all pickt and chosen but the chief Governour was the Duke of Guise When Marquess Albert's Officers were bringing together their Forces by his Command the Bishop of Bamberg made his Complaint of it to the Imperial Chamber and on the nine and twentieth of December procured an Order from that Court commanding the Albertines to desist from Hostility The People of Ulm having retaken the Castle of Helfestein out of which they forced the Garrison which Marquess Albert left there razed it to the Ground The Emperor being forced by the Severity of the Winters Cold and despairing of taking the Town about the end of December raised the Siege and drew off to Dedehove From thence returning into the Netherlands he ordered some Regiments to Winter in the Country about Treves amongst whom also was Marquess Albert but the Army what by Sickness and what through the excess of Cold was lessened by a third Part. On the two and twentieth of January the French had Te Deum sung in the Churches of Metz for their good Success in maintaining the Town Next day after search was made in the Houses of the Inhabitants for Lutheran Books which were publickly Burnt by the Hand of the common Hangman and then the Duke of Guise having left a Deputy there returned into France The same Month Marquess Albert's Officers took many Places from the Bishop of Bamberg and when after the Siege of Metz was raised Albert having for some time held his Winter-Quarters at Treves and received from the Emperor Pay for his Soldiers was in the Month of February upon his return into Germany the Bishop of Bamberg on the seventeenth of February obtained two new Decrees from the Imperial Chamber the one renewing the former Command and the other enjoyning the Nobility and Gentry in Franconia and State of Norimberg as also the Prince Palatine and John Frederick Duke of Saxony as being next Neighbours to come in to his Assistance About the end of February the French King whose Courage was raised by the Defence of Metz published a Printed Declaration to the States of the Empire which sharply galled and reflected upon the Emperor for the design of it was to render him both odious and contemptible to wit that he was no more to be feared now since his Power was broken and the Arts he had used for many Years detected and since he was become so crazy and valetudinary that he could scarce fetch his Breath but that his Inclinations would still be the same towards them that 's to say Honourable and Free and though some whom he had obliged by great Favours were not so grateful as might have been expected yet he would not for all that abandon the Friendship of the rest When Marquess Albert had notice of the Orders issued out from the Imperial Chamber he wrote many Letters to the Bishop of Arras the Duke of Alva and to the Emperor himself acquainting them with the Attempts of the Bishops and how they violated their Compacts and that since his Imperial Majesty had confirmed the Transactions which they made with him he desired that they might be threatned and commanded to Obey Next he sent an Agent to the Imperial Chamber at Spire to represent to the Judges that the Bishops transgressed not only their Covenants but also the Emperor's Commands and therefore to desire them that they would not move any Process against him but recal the Decrees which they had made To these desires they made answer that it was their Duty to do Justice to all Men and that they could not deny the same to the Bishops who sued for it He on the other Hand having made a long Refutation of what they had alledged insisted upon the same Demand as before For that otherwise said he if he received any Damage he would have a just Title to demand reparation from them March the twenty third the Emperor wrote an Answer to Marquess Albert's Letter that he denied not but that Transaction had been confirmed by him That he had also liberally given him his Pay much to his own Detriment when at the same time the rest had had nothing That it would have been very grateful to him indeed if the Bishops had been quiet having sent an Ambassador to them to perswade them thereunto But that since they refused and had appealed to him to the Princes Electors and Imperial Chamber he himself might see that he could not deny them that especially since some States had conceived Suspicions of him and given out various Reports So that if now he should condescend to his Desires and command them to perform their Compacts it would both be said that he did unjustly and also
against him yet in the first of those Meetings we offered that if he would lay down his Arms and commit the case to the Determination of the Law with good Security we also would lay down our Arms and submit our Cause to the Arbitriment of the mediating Princes or to the Judgment of the Emperor and the States and the same Condition was tendered by the Bishops also by the Advice and Command of the Ambassadors of King Ferdinand The Council of the mediating Princes out of a desire of Peace proposed that if the Confederates in the Circle of Franconia would promise to restore him his Territories as they then were both sides should lay down their Arms and take new Securities for the future that then the Proscription should as to that part be â—oid and the whole Controversy should be committed to a friendly and a legal Treaty But he in Contempt and Scorn called the Intercessors his Enemies Broakers and said he would not suffer himself to be reduced into such Streights that he did not desire the Outlawry should be reversed that he would hazard the loss of what was left and many other such like things using light and scurrilous Reflections mixed with Threats against all the Princes and States as may be shewn in his Letters Printed at Holansperg And in the next Congress though we offered him more advantageous terms yet he was never the more inclined to a Peace no his whole design then was to prevail against us by Frauds and Ambushes which deserved no great Commendation and are very unworthy of a Prince For at the request of the Mediators he promised to lay down his Arms and to referr the whole Case to the Emperor and some Princes This Compromise was accordingly confirmed by the Emperor's Letters of the fourth of April from Brussells wherein he commanded the States of Franconia to lay down their Arms and to commit the Affair to his Diligence and Faith but the close design which Albert had in this was as it appears by what followed to stop the Emperor's Proceedings for a time that the Execution of the Outlawry might not be committed to the other Provinces of the Empire also that in the mean time he might bring that Army he was then underhand Levying into the Field and oppress us before were aware But by the Blessing of God this Project was discovered his Letters about that time which he sent to his Captains who were dispersed here and there being Intercepted In which he said that he had submitted to the terms Proposed at Rotenburg that he might gain time and surprize his Enemies that if the Interceeding Princes should require them to disband they should not comply with them in it but should continue in a Body and upon no terms be separated and that by way of Excuse they should alledge there were many Months Pay due to them and that they could not disband till they had that Money but that they would remain where they were without doing any Injury till their Arrears were Payed To the same purpose also are his Letters to his Commanders to fall promiscuously and without distinction upon whomsoever they could When therefore his secret Treachery was thus discovered and his Ambassadors at Rotenburg would give ours no positive and certain Answer whether he would stand to the Arbitriment of the Emperor or no by the advice of the Ambassadors of Ferdinand we were forced as we say in our Letters sent then to the Emperor to commit our Cause to God the Emperor and Empire This being the true state of things any Man will hereby be able easily to understand that we are loaded with so many Reproaches Slanders and Miseries only because in Obedience to the Emperor and the Imperial Chamber which is our Supream Court we have endeavoured to repress his Violence and Fury And therefore we earnestly desire all those who love Vertue and Justice and hate Force and Injury that they would consider that if the Sentence given against him by the Imperial Chamber be not put in Execution and his Insolence humbled not only we but they too will thereby be equally in danger Let no Man therefore give him any Assistance Refuge or Protection but as it becomes Princes and the Lovers of their Country let them not only not hinder the Execution of the Decree but with all their might promote the Execution of it and in all things act so that others may by this Example be deterred And we beseech them not to give any Credit to his defamatory and slanderous Libels against us and that if he shall again enter into any Designs against us that then they would lend us their Help and Advice In the Month of May Albert having received the Money above-mentioned for the Ransom of Aumale went into Saxony and getting some forces together marched by unfrequented ways toward Schweinfurt and the tenth of June he entred the Town on that side it was not Besieged with eight hundred Horse and seven Foot Companies But finding the Town very much Impoverished the third day after he entred it he Plundered it and in the Night time drew out all the Soldiers as well Horse as Foot to the number of eighteen Companies together with the Cannon and leaving no Guards to secure the Gates he marched in the dead time of the Night to Kitzingen a Town seated a little lower upon the Mayn When the day broke and the Besiegers saw the Gates of the City without any to defend them they gave the Alaâ—â— in the Camp and began to prepare to follow him but in the Interim many of the Soldiers and especially those that served under Henry Duke of Brunswick rushed into the Town and took and destroyed what the other had left So that the Princes and Commanders were forced to set Fire to the Town in several Places to compel their Soldiers to return to the Camp that Albert might not have time to escape whilst they were Plundering the Town Though Albert had the advantage of some hours in his March yet being retarded by the Cannon and other heavy Carriages he was easily overtaken and forced by the Van-Guard to make a stand to defend himself but the rest of the Army soon coming up when he saw that he was not able to defend himself against so great a Number advising his to shift for themselves as well as they could he with a few Horsemen took his Flight and Swimming over the Mayn arrived safely at Kitzingen with the loss of all his Baggage and Cannon The eighth day after his principal Fortress called Blasseburg was surrendred and fell into the Hands of Ferdinand King of Bohemia Henry Plaw Chancellor of Bohemia the indefatigable Enemy of this Place died before it some few days before it was yielded Thus Albert Marquess of Brandenburg was driven out of all his Territories Whilst things went thus in Franconia Henry Duke of Brunswick demanded Money of most of the Princes Nobility and Cities in the
Primitive Church and first four Councils that it commends and teacheth those Works which are truly Christian and exhorts the People to obey their Magistrates So that if a firm and certain Peace may be established in this Diet there was no doubt but the Emperor and his Majesty might obtain great Succours from the Germans against the Turks but then those who had imbraced the Augustan Confession and for the most part had been brought up in it would constantly persist in that Faith so that if there were not such a Peace made as should include Religion and confirm the Possessions of the Church Revenues where they now were though this affair were only referred to another Diet as has already been frequently done and one day spent after another in Delays whilst the People were left in a miserable uncertainty of enjoying what they had That in this case it was very doubtful whether all Men would patiently bear it for though he and the rest of the Princes should sit still acquiesce and do their duties and continue in their Obedience yet it might happen that those that were mean Men and of no regard might cause Troubles by means of this uncertainty of Danger and of this fear for Religion especially in those Places which lay most exposed and afforded the greatest opportunities for Insurrections of this Nature That this being a thing in which the fortune of the Empire consisted he desired earnestly that his Majesty would apply his Thoughts to it now he had obtained a full and plenary Power from the Emperor That besides this Condition was some years since proposed by his Brother Maurice at Passaw that if perhaps the differences in Religion could not be Composed that yet nevertheless an inviolable Peace should be Established till things could be intirely Composed And though the Emperor would not then admit this offer because as he said all the States were concerned in it yet seeing he did not neither totally reject it and in the Treaty or Decree expresly promised That he would take Care that things might be equitably discussed in the Diet and there should be no Arts used to suborn the Votes of Men in the business of Religion He was confident on this account that in the entrance or beginning of this Diet He would solicite not only those States and Princes who met then at Passaw but all the rest of the States to imbrace a Peace When the Deputies of the Duke of Saxony had made this Speech in the Diet the fourth of February the next day the King of the Romans made a reference or proposal of it to the States in the manner I have set forth in the conclusion of the last Book About this time the Learned Men of Misnia and Wittemberg and especially Melanchthon sent their Letters of Consolation to those Ministers which were Banished out of Bohemia as I said in the end of the last Book wherein they shew the Craft of the adverse Party who alledged that they only desired to preserve necessary Order in the Church and that those who either had no Episcopal Ordination or who were Married ought not to distribute the Holy Sacrament for they only pretended this Cause of their Banishment that they might not seem to intend the oppression of the true Religion But then these Learned Men sufficiently proved that it was a meer Tyranny to deprive Ministers of their Functions only because they were Married for that the Devil was the Author of the Prohibition of Marriage as appears sufficiently in the sacred Scriptures That Orders were not to be sought from the Hands of the Bishops who were the declared Enemies of the Gospel and defended Idolatry but that they were to be sought from that Church which imbraced the true Doctrine and therefore had the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven That it was extreamly absurd and dangerous to ask Shepherds of the Wolves That the Church has ever had a Right to elect fitting Ministers and that so it was decreed in the Council of Nice That those that were thus Elected and Tryed were confirmed by those that presided in the Holy Churches That this Custom was still retained and therefore it was a meer slander when they pretended the Protestants disturbed or broke the Order of the Church Therefore since this was the true state of things and for that they were Banished for the Profession of the true Religion they ought to bear their Sufferings with the greater moderation of Mind for that God in due time would take Care of them and they and the Neighbour Churches would afford them the best Hospitality and Charity they could The French having taken Jurea a City of Piedmont upon the River Doria under the Command of Brisac the thirteeenth day of December of the last Year This Year the third day of March they took Casale a City standing near the Po by surprize though there was in it a Garrison of Spaniards and Germans the Castle held out for some time and then was forced to yield too after this they possessed themselves of several other Towns and amongst them of Valenza and Salvadora both which they beat down and levelled The sixth of March Augustus the Elector of Saxony Joachim Marquess of Brandenburg and Elector the Children of John Frederick late Elector of Saxony the Landgrave of Hesse and several of the neighbouring Princes met at Naumburg upon the River Saal and there renewed the Hereditary League between these Families which I have mentioned before in my twenty fourth Book and at the same time mutually agreed to stick to the Augustan Confession and that no suspition might thereupon arise af any under-hand Combination the fifth day after their Meeting they gave the Emperor an account of the reason of this congress in this manner The last year when there was a Treaty concluded between Augustus and John Frederick Electors of Saxony it was then determined that the ancient and Paternal League should be renewed which was begun above a hundred Years since and afterwards confirm'd by a Law That they were then met to renew that League and as it had been very beneficial to their Ancestors and their People so they hoped that for the future they should reap the same Advantage from it seeing they sought nothing from it but the Publick Peace and Welfare and did not design to offend any Person and they said that pursuant to the old Custom they had excepted his Imperial Majesty and his Brother the King of the Romans out of it and that as they desired to live in Peace amongst themselves so they would perform that Duty which they owed to the Publick and which became obedient Princes of the Empire That as to Religion they would not exceed the terms and limits of the Augustan Confession but then because those Heads of the Christian Religion which were contained in it had not the least mixture of any Seditious or Impious Doctrines by the Blessing of God they would
for that the present state of his own Provinces required his Presence because the Turks seemed to be preparing for some new Enterprises against them and threatned high though he was then in Treaty with them and because nothing could to any good purpose be debated and determined if the Electors were not present in Person he thought it was the best way to prorogue the Diet to another time and that in this Convention a Decree should be made to this Purpose Because by reason of the absence of the Princes no Decree can now be made We are pleased to deferr all the further Transactions to another Convention of the States which shall be holden at Ratisbon about the beginning of March in the next Year and then the Princes shall be present in Person that they together with the Emperor or King of the Romans may determine and fix those things which have been now debated or which shall then come under Deliberation And that in the mean time the Pacification of Passaw shall remain in its full force and whereas that contains a Resolution first That in a Diet of the Empire of Germany should be considered whether the differences of Religion might be ended by a general National Council or by a Conference and lastly That this question should be determined by the common advice of all the States and by the ordinary Authority of the Emperor Therefore he who loved Peace and Agreement was resolved to exhibit in the next Convention a Writing concerning the way of determining those things which were now in Controversie That there should be nothing of Fraud in it and that what was offered should only aim at the appeasing the present Offences and the mitigating their mutual Exasperations and give them means of considering with the greater certainty whether the way he should then propose could put an end to the differences or whether it would be necessary to seek out another Therefore he desired they would approve this Prorogation and that they would in Person attend at the next Diet as he had given them an Example who for the sake of the Commonwealth had in this been so many Months absent from his own Provinces That he had chosen Ratisbon because by reason of the impending Dangers which he feared from the Turks he could not conveniently go further than that City from his own Bounds That therefore they should assure him what their Intentions were that he might be certain the thing should not be any longer delayed that so the better part of that time too might not be spent in a vain Expectation as has often happened already These Demands being made the greatest part of the Princes were of Opinion that they should not part till the Peace were confirmed for that all Germany was in great Expectation this would now be done and that seeing they were now nearer an Agreement than at any time before therefore they desired to see this dispatched before his Departure that so in the next Diet they might proceed to the business of the Turks and the other affairs of the Empire with the greater Expedition As to what concern'd the Book he mentioned some of them said what happened about seven years since to a former Book written and published concerning Religion would certainly be the Fate of this For that they could well remember the Reproaches it met with and whereas it was proposed and by a Law established by the Emperor only for Peace sake it became the occasion of very great Offences and Contentions when Ferdinand about the Twenty fifth of August had received this Answer from the Deputies the thirty first of the same Month he gave in an Answer to the Papers delivered him by both the Parties in which he shews what was his own Opinion and especially as to what concerned the Bishops that is that if any of them changed his Religion he should immediately be removed from the Administration of his Bishoprick and be deprived of the Revenues belonging to it and he very largely exhorted the Protestants to yield their Consent to this For said he this Condition takes nothing from you but only takes Care that if any Bishop deserts his Order and falls from the ancient Religion the Benefices or Diocesses shall nevertheless continue in the same state they were at first Instituted which in it self is agreeable to the Law the Statutes of the Empire and the Pacification of Passaw which last in express terms saith That all those who follow the ancient Religion shall not be disturbed whether they be Laymen or Ecclesiasticks in their Religion Ceremonies Goods Possessions Rights or Privileges but they shall quietly use and enjoy all these without the interruption of any Person whatsoever That I do not see saith he why this condition should be refused which tends directly to the same end that is that they may quietly enjoy what is their own which it is certain they cannot do if they part with this Security for then it will follow that those who have deserted the ancient Religion and yet will retain the Administration and the Possession of the Revenues will thereby hinder the Colleges or Chapters from dealing with them according to their Laws and another inconvenience will follow upon it which is that there will be no great affection between their Bishop and them Seeing therefore it is fit that according to the Laws of their Institution fit Persons should govern and administer the Diocesses and that if they act contrary to the Laws and make a â—efection from their Order that then their Colleges should remove them from their Places and take Care that this Defection may hurt only one Man therefore surely this Demand ought not to be denied And therefore I do with great earnestness exhort you that you would not persist any longer in this Refusal For amongst other things you are to consider they do not prescribe to you after what manner and form you shall act in those Bishopricks Colleges Chapters or Benefices which are all ready in your Possession nor how you shall treat the Ministers of your Church who shall violate your Laws and neglect their Duties For as it would be very troublesome and grievous to you if they should desire that such of your Ministers who have deserted your Religion and do make it their Business to oppose it should yet be retained by you So it must be much more grievous to them if theirs must still retain the Administration of their Diocesses and the possession of their Revenues who have cast off their Religion and oppose it for what can be expected from hence but Suits Offences and Contentiens So that the very Foundations of the thing we are seeking in this Treaty Peace shall be hereby rained and entirely destroyed The eighth day after the Protestants replied that it was not their intention to prescribe a Rule to the Ecclesiasticks and much less that the Revenues of the Bishopricks should be dissipated or that the
English drew almost all their Forces on this Side the Gate and some of the next Towers being much battered the Duke of Guise ordered fifteen Cannon suddenly to be planted against the Castle the Walls of which were not faced with Earth within this Battery was plaid with that Fury that the Noise of the Cannon was heard as far as Antwerp which is thirty three German Miles to the North A great Breach being made there Andelot was commanded to pass the River and lodge himself upon the other Side with one thousand two hundred Musqueteers after this they drew the Water out of the Town-Dike which was thought by the English the greatest defence they had and by pitched Hurdles they laid a Passage over the muddy Dikes and marshy Grounds for the Soldiers and secured the Foot from the Annoyance of the Small-shot by other Hurdles about half a foot thick which had Stakes fenced with Iron to strike into the Ground and Loop-holes to shoot through The Night after the Walls being now battered down the Duke of Guise ordered Grammont with three hundred Small-shot to play all Night into the Breach to hinder the English from making any Works within the Castle for their Defence Strozzi was ordered at the same time to lodge himself with the same number of Foot and one hundred Pioneers on the other Side near the Gate but was beaten off by the English Small-shot and forced to return to the Duke of Guise The next Morning the Duke of Guise having ordered the Breach at the Castle to be carefully viewed Grammont was ordered with three hundred Muskets to enter the place who was to be seconded by Strozzi with the same number these passed the Dike in Water up to the Navel and notwithstanding any resistance the English could make lodged themselves in the Castle driving those of the English that had not been slain into the Town The Castle being thus gained the Duke of Guise put a strong Garrison into it The English so soon as the Tide returned again which filled the Dikes stormed the Castle in hopes to regain that important Post and being beaten off they planted four Cannon against the Bridge and forced open the Castle-gate and then stormed it the second time but having lost two hundred of their best Men to no good purpose they then began to treat of a Surrender which at last was agreed The Governour and fifty others being to become Prisoners of War The Soldiery and Townsmen to be at liberty to pass into England or Flanders without any Injury as to their Lives or Liberties And all the Ammunition Cannon Housholdstuff Gold Silver Merchandise and Horse was to be left to the disposal of the Duke of Guise On these Conditions was Calais delivered up to the French the fourteenth of January 1557 58 when it had been two hundred and ten Years in the hands of the English The Place was no sooner yielded up but great numbers of Ships came over who understanding what had passed returned back King Philip had smelt the Design of the French upon this Place and had wrote to Queen Mary that he would put Succours into the Town but this was suspected by the English as a Design to get Calais into his own Hands and so his Prediction came to pass After Calais was taken they fell to consider Whether they should attack Guines which was in the Hands of the English and lay two French Leagues from Calais to the South or Graveling a Town of Flanders three Leagues to the N. E. But they resolved to attempt Guines which was nearer and more necessary for the securing the Possession of Calais the Lord Gray was Governour of it who had a good Garrison and had received some Succours from King Philip yet at the first Attack he left the Town and fled into the Castle but whilst the French were plundering the Town returned again and drove them out and firing the Town returned into the Castle again which in a short time after he surrendred when he had eight hundred English Spanish and Flemmings to have continued the Defence of it but the Hearts of the English were down for Gray was reputed a good Soldier There was now nothing left to the English but a small Place call'd the Comte de Oye which had a Castle not strong but almost unaccessible as being surrounded with unpassable Marshes and which had no Passage but over a Timber-Bridge This Place lies almost two Leagues from Calais towards Graveling the Garrison of which never staid for a Summons but hearing of the loss of Guines fled and left the Place open and unguarded and Sipetra took possession of it without any further trouble for the French. Burnet calls this Castle Hammes and Thuanus Oye but the Castles of Hammes lay directly between Guines and Calais One Sir Edward Grimstone was then Comptroler of Calais and a Privy Counsellor and he had often given Advertisement of the ill condition of the Garrison but the Treasury was low the People discontented and the Thoughts of the Queen and her Council more set upon extirpating Heresie as they called it than upon preserving this important Post so it was lost and the Grief and Dishonour of this Misfortune sat so heavy upon the Spirits of the Queen that she never joyed after The next thing the French undertook was the taking of the Castle of Herbemont in the Forest of Ardenne belonging to the Count of Beilisteine which was very troublesome to the Inhabitants of Ivoy this enterprize succeeded well too and they took the Castle the sixteenth of February and after it several other small Places on the Frontiers were deserted by their Garrisions This Year a Fleet of one hundred and twenty Turkish Galleys loosed from Prevesa a Port of Epirus and passing by Brindisi took and plundred Reggio a City in the South of Italy after which landing in the Bay di Surrento they carried four thousand persons into Slavery among which was a great many Monks and Nuns The Grief and Shame of this was the greater because it was done in sight of Naples From thence it sailed to the Coast of Provence and having refreshed the Sailors it returned to Minorca and took the Town of Citadella with great difficulty and the loss of four hundred Men after which it returned in August into Turkey The French Fleet in the Mediterranean was able to do nothing for want of Money so the Fear was much greater than the Hurt The twenty fifth of May the Dauphine was married to Mary Queen of the Scots yet the Scotch Ambassadors refused to promise under their Hands and Seals to procure the Dauphine in the next Convention of their States to be received and owned as King of Scotland and thereupon four of them dying soon after it was suspected that they had been poisoned Yet in the next Convention the thing was granted and the Earl of Argile was appointed to bring the Marital Crown into France But in
the payment of Six thousand Crowns which was confirm'd by a Treaty Signed and Sworn between them and the King of Poland After which Furstemberg resigned his Dignity to Gotard Ketler There was also a Complaint made by the Livonians against the Inhabitants of Lubeck Riga and Revel for furnishing the Russ who were the Enemies of Germany not only with all sorts of Mechandize imported by them to Narva a Town of Russia but also with Arms and Ammunition which for the future was by a Law made in this Dyet forbidden which was afterwards repeal'd The Twenty eighth of March the French Embassadors were introduced into the Dyet and after they had in an Elegant Speech declared the great Affections their Master had for the Emperor and the States of Germany they desired the ancient League might be renewed between the Empire and that Kingdom and that for the future there might be a firmer and closer Union and Friendship Upon this the Emperor returned Thanks to the Embassadors saying That the King might be assured of the Friendship of the Empire the Princes and States and of his too if his Actions did agree with his Words and those Cities which had lately been taken from the Empire were restored to it That this being done he did not see what could hinder their entring into a sincere Friendship At this the Embassadors replied That they had no Instruction concerning what he had proposed about the Cities but they would give an Account of it to the King their Master and in the mean time they desired the States would meet the King's Proposals of Friendship with equal Candour Upon this the Assembly broke up and the Embassadors were re-conducted back with great Civility and Respect to whom it was hinted that the Emperor could not but mention the Restitution of the Cities but then that neither he the Princes nor the States would break with the King of France though those Cities were not restored They decreed also a Noble Embassy to the King of France in which the Cardinal of Ausburg and Christopher Duke of Wirtemburg were employed One David George a Native of Delft in Holland born of mean Parents his Father being a Fencer and his Mother a mean Woman and himself unacquainted with any other than his Mother-Tongue was a Person of great seeming Moderation so that all took him for a very Honest and well-meaning Man tho' he was of a stubborn and incorrigable disposition He was a Person of a comely Countenance and good meine and all the Motions of his Body were Grave and becoming so that he seemed made up of Honesty This Man spread amongst his Country-men the Pestilent Sect of Anabaptists to which they were very much disposed and this being done to his great advantage for he had got a good Estate by it and fearing he might not be safe if he continued any longer in his Native Country where he was accounted the Head of that Sect he went with some of his Followers to Basil in the Year 1544 under the Name of John Bruck and the first of April made a Speech in the Senate of that City desiring He might be protected by them as one forced to flee for his Religion and that they would receive his Wife Children Family and Fortunes as in a safe Harbour The Cause the Person and the Speech agreeed so exactly and his Temper was so wholely unknown to them as well as his former Life and his Country being very remote what he said appeared so like Truth and had happened to so many others That August 25 having given the usual Oath he was taken into the Protection of that City where he lived with that Respect to the Magistrate that Humanity towards the Citizens and the Civility towards all observing carefully their Religious Rites and in all things behaved himself so well that he gave not the least occasion to any to suspect him of any erroneous Doctrin and he was as well thought of by the most as he desired to be or was esteemed by his own Party Thus he lived very quietly in his Family observing very strictly three things 1. Concealing the Name of David George by which he was well known in Holland and Friesland 2. Of what State and Condition he was at Home so that some took him for a Person of good Birth others for a Nobleman or Rich Merchant 3. Lastly he took Care not to admit any into his Sect of the City of Basil or of the neighbouring Country But in the mean time he took care by Letters Books and Messengers to enlarge his Sect in Holland and in other such distant Places But as to Switzerland he medled not for fear he might be discovered Having thus spent six Years with great Pleasure there happened a thing which gave him some Disturbance one of his Followers falling off upon better Information and appearing with great Zeal against the Doctrins of his quondam Master His House being also burnt with Lightning was a sad Presage That his good Fortune and his Life were near their End. But that which most afflicted him was That an able Person was come from Holland who had given an exact account of him and his Family to the Citizens of Basil this brought a great Despondence of Mind upon him and that a Sickness which seized his Wife also who dyed first and David George followed her himself August 25 1556 and he was buried with great Pomp in the Church of S. Leonard Thus died that famous Impostor and Deceiver who had pretended That he was greater and more Divine than Christ and Immortal that the Doctrin of Moses and the Prophets Christ and the Apostles was imperfect and did not lead to a true and perfect Felicity but his was such as would certainly make him who rightly understood it happy That he was the true Christ and Messiah the most beloved Son of the Father who was begotten not of Flesh but by the Holy Ghost and the Spirit of Christ which having reduced his Flesh to nothing and kept it in a certain place unknown to the Saints had at last delivered it to David George with much more such Blasphemous Non sense After his Death the Fraud broke out and this Year March 12 his Sons and all that belonged to him to the number of eleven were brought before the Senate and examined concerning his Name Country and Doctrin And they answering as he had taught were committed to different Prisons and all his Papers and Writings were delivered to the Divines April 26 the Divines and University having considered them condemn'd his Doctrin as false contrary to the sacred Scriptures pernicious and injurious to Jesus Christ and to be exterminated out of the Christian World. After this his Sons were dismiss'd out of Prison upon condition they should buy no Lands without the Walls of the City without the Permission of the Senate That they should entertain no Travellers though of their near Relations but should send them to
Ulrick Duke of Meckleburg Christopher Duke of Wirtemburg Charles Marquis of Baden Ernest Prince of Henneberg and the Ambassadors of Joachim Duke and Elector of Brandenburg and of John and George Fredirick of that Family of Philip Landtgrave of Hesse and of Barnim and Jo. Frederick Dukes of Pomerania upon the report of a Council suddenly to be assembled met at Naumburg to which Place the King of Denmark and the Princes of Lunenburg sent only Letters of Friendship to assure those that met that they would stand by them The design of it was to put an end to those Controversies which had arisen amongst the Protestants themselves to renew their Subscriptions to the Augustane Confession to consider and by mutual Consent to resolve whether they should go to the Council or refuse it They had great Controversies amongst themselves about the various Editions of the Augustane Confession which had been explained enlarged and as to the Expressions very often changed and the Elector of Saxony was for the retaining the first Edition and putting the Smalcaldick Articles by way of Preface to it but the rest not consenting to it he left Naumburg and return'd When they came to consider the Council of Trent they were no less divided in that too Some were for an absolute rejection of it others were for the fending Ambassadors from the several States who should propose the giving an Account of their Faith in a free and truly Christian Synod and enter a great Complaint against the Pope and Court of Rome make their Exceptions to the Council on the account of the Suspition of the Judges the perverse Method or Order of Proceedings and the Inconvenience of the Place this they conceived would â—itigate the Envy had been raised against them and shew that their Enemies and not they were the obstructers of Concord and Union After this they sent Deputies to the Duke of Saxony deploring his departure before the End of the Conference and giving him an Account of the Form of Confession they had Agreed to Subscribe and desiring him that he would also subscribe it or at least restrain his Divines from traducing and defaming it as they had before done by some things agreed at Frankford Soon after Augustus Duke of Saxony Married Anne Daughter of Morice of the Family of Nassaw and Brother to William Prince of Orange Jerolamus Martinego who was sent to Treat with Queen Elizabeth for the same end as I have said already came into Flanders and from thence according to the ancient Custom sent for Leave to come into England but was denied it the Council of England not thinking it fit to admit a Nuncio from the Pope when there Religion would be apt upon such an Encouragement to Imbroil our Affairs upon began to Treat with Throcomorton our Ambassador in that Court That Queen Elizabeth would be pleased to send her Ambassadours to the Council in which he was seconded by Letters from the Kings of France Spain and Portugal and the Cardinal of Portugal and the Duke de Alva To which she replied That from her Heart she desired a General Council but she would have nothing to do with a Papal That she would have nothing to do with the Pope neither whose Authority was banished out of England by the consent of the Three Estates That it belonged not to him but to the Emperour to call a Council and that she acknowledged no greater Authority in him than in any other Bishop The Twenty fifth of July Erirk King of Sweden was Crown'd with great Pomp at Stockholme upon the Baltick Sea. Charles Cardinal of Caraffa and Nephew of the last Pope was strangled the Sixth of March in the Castle of St. Angelo upon pretence That he had Exasperated Paul IV. his Uncle with his false Stories and put him upon a War That he had caused the Truce between France and Spain to be broken had entered underhand Treaties with the Protestant Princes of Germany and also with the Turk the Enemies of Christianity but in reality because the Pope was much offended with the sharp Answers the Cardinal made after he was imprison'd The Pope being thereupon made sensible that the Cardinal was a Person of great Spirit and Interest and if ever he were dismiss'd he would at one time or other Revenge the Quarrel upon the Popes Relations so that his Holiness contrary to his first Intentions found it was needful to cut him off though against Law as his own Canonists generally said The Count de Paliani Brother of the Cardinal of Caraffa had the same fate but on other pretences In France all that desired the Peace of the Church and the Reformation of Religion concluded the Pope would not hold a Council whatever he pretended and therefore urged the having of a National Council which was opposed by the Guises and their Faction for fear the Protestant Party should prevail in it against the Catholick They did whatever they could to perswade the King and Council from it and procured the Pope to perswade Philip King of Spain to interest himself in it who sent Anthony Bishop of Toledo to perswade the Queen to send the French Clergy to the Council of Trent and that in the mean time to prevent a Schism the thoughts of a National Council should be laid aside He had Orders also as occasion offered to threaten those who favoured the Protestants and to give assurances of his Masters readiness to support the young King which was ill taken in France as a kind of usurping a Right to interpose their Spanish Pride in the French Affairs Toledo died in France and Maurice his Successor became very importunate with the Queen to begin a Persecution against the Protestants which was as stiffly opposed by the King of Navar who demanded his Kingdom and interrupted all the Spanish Proceedings by his frequent Complaints to the young King. King Philip finding to his Cost that this Princes Power was greater in France than he imagin'd began a Design upon him to make him more pliant to his Desires This was to reject his Wife and Marry Mary Queen of the Scots and then declaring himself Head of the Catholicks in France the King of Spain was to give him Sardinia for Navar and to help him to Conquer England and so two Heretical Queens were for Heresie to be laid aside and the Pope was to Consecrate and Bless the Business The King of Navar detesting the Project of Repudiating his Queen the Exchange of Sardinia was driven on with more eagerness pretending it was the greatest Island in the Mediterranean Sea next Sicily and the most fruitful rich and populous and situate very conveniently for a Conquest of Barbary This Project being also seconded by the Popes Nuncio the Cardinal of Ferrara prevented the calling of a National Council which Wise Men thought was the only thing that could have prevented the Civil War which after broke out to the almost total Ruine of France
Though the Edict of July had forbidden all Meetings of the Protestants yet their Number daily increasing and with it their Confidence not only Sermons were openly made but the Priests were in many places forcibly expell'd and the Churches seized for the use of the Ministers which gave being to the Edict of the 3d of November for the Restitution of those Churches upon pain of Death which by the Perswasion of the Ministers themselves was obeyed throughout the Kingdom But when notwithstanding Men seem'd rather enraged than appeased by the Edict of July and the Conference of Poissy was broken up without any effect there being every day news brought of new Commotions they began to think of some more effectual Remedy which that it might meet with the greater approbation and by consequence be the more universally executed the Presidents and some chosen Members of all the Parliaments of France were summon'd before the King to St. Germain by whose Advice it was to be drawn and Moddel'd Upon which the Cardinal of Lorrain and the Duke of Guise left the Court conceiving the thing would do it self now Montmorancy and the King of Navar had espoused that Interest About the same time there was a dreadful Tumult at Dijon whil'st the Protestants were assembled at their Sermon the Rabble thought fit to make themselves the Executioners of the Edict of July and having procured a Drum to beat before them they marched against the Huguenots but the Meeters made use of their Weapons and repell'd Force with Force The Rabble thereupon turn'd their fury against the Private Families and plundered several Houses There were also some Tumults at Paris on the same score and towards the end of the year all things tended to a general Revolution Having thus represented the State of Religion in all the rest of Christendom as shortly and as well as I can I return now to Scotland The Messengers they had sent into France to procure the Royal Consent to the Acts they had made in their last Parliament were no sooner return'd with a positive denial and a dreadful Reprimand which frighted and exasperated the Nation both at once but they had the Joyful News of the Death of King Francis II. to their great satisfaction and the no less affliction of the French Faction in that Kingdom On the other side the Nobility who had lent their Assistance to the Expulsion of the French immediately met at Edinburg and after a Consultation sent the Lord James to their Queen to perswade her to return into Scotland Lesley however prevented them and got to her some days before the Lord James She was then at Vitrie in Campaigne whither she was retired to lament her Loss His business was to bespeak her favour to the Catholick Party and return into Scotland The first she readily promised and as for the other she ordered him to Attend till she had resolved what to do It was soon after resolved that she should leave France so that the Lord James found her fixed to return when he came into France yet his Assuring her of the great desires the Nobility of Scotland had to see her there again much confirm'd her So she sent him back with Orders to see that nothing should be attempted contrary to the Treaty of Leith in her absence In March following M. Giles Noailles a Senator of Bourdeaux arrived at Leith with three Demands from the new King of France 1. That the old League between France and Scotland should be renewed 2. That the late Confederacy with England should be dissâ—lved 3. That the Church-men should be restored to all they had been deprived of But the Council replied That it did not befit them to treat of things of that Consequence before the Assembly of the States which was to be held the 21st of May when the Lord James made answer That the French and not the Scots had broke the old League by endeavouring to enslave them 2. That they could not violate the Treaty made with England and as to the third That they did not acknowledge those he interceded for to be Church men and that Scotland having renounced the Pope would no longer maintain his Priests and Vassals About the same time the Earls of Morton and Glencarn returned from England whither they had been sent with Assurances That the Queen would assist them in the Defence of the Liberties of the Kingdom if at any time they stood in need of her Help which was heard with much Joy. As the Lord James returned into Scotland he waited upon Queen Elizabeth and advised her to stop Queen Mary if she came by England as he expected she would 'till he had secured the State of Religion in Scotland for tho' she had promised She would continue all things in the State she found them ye he would not intirely rely upon her Promise having so often heard the old Maxim from the late Regent To make sure work therefore he procured an Act to be passed in this Convention for the Demolishing all the Cloysters and Abby Churches which were yet left standing in that Kingdom the Execution whereof as to the Western Parts was committed to the Earls of Arran Argile and Glencarn as to the North to the Lord James and as to the Inland Counties to some Barons that were thought the most Zealous Whereupon ensued a most deplorable Devastation of Churches and Church-buildings saith Spotiswood throughout all the Kingdom for every one made bold to put to their Hands the meaner sort imitating the Example of the greater and those who were in Authority No difference was made but all the Churches were either defaced or pulled down to the ground The Church Place and what ever Men could make Money of as Timber Lead and Bells were put to sale and the Monuments of the Dead the Registers of the Churches and Libraries were burn'd or destroyed and what escaped the Fury of the first Tumults now perished in a common Shipwrack and that under the colour of publick Authority John Knox is said to have very much promoted this Calamity by a Maxim he published That the sure way tâ— drive away the Rooks was to pull down their Nests which in probability he meant only of the Monks but now their Hands were in was extended to all the Church Buildings Noailles was then in Scotland and carried the News of this dreadful Reformation to the Queen into France She was much enraged at it and said to some of her Confidents that she would imitate Mary Queen of England but however she had wit enough to dissemble her Resentment for the present In order to her return she left Vitri and went to Paris and having waited upon the King and Queen-Regent to take her leave of them she took her Journy towards Calais Queen Elizabeth had sent the Earl of Bedford to condole the Death of Francis her late Husband and to desire her Ratification of the Treaty of
them the more cruel they fell next upon the Priests and Monks as the Authors of their Calamities this more incensing the Roman Catholicks And they again using the most horrid barbarities that were ever practised by Men the Protestants rose likewise in their Executions on them so that if this War had continued a few years France must have been depopulated Now though in all this the Roman Catholicks were the first Agressors and forced the Protestants to this severity in their own defence yet their Writers cunningly omitting the Provocation or softing the Actions of their own Party set forth at large the Cruelties of the Hereticks as they call them and many times aggravate them above what is true but Thuanus though a Roman Catholick was too great a Man to be guilty of so false a representation and who ever pleaseth to consult him will and I have been very favourable to the Roman Catholicks in this Abstract and have not sought occasions to make them odious without cause A CONTINUATION OF THE HISTORY OF THE Reformation of the Church BOOK IV. The CONTENTS The Cardinal of Ferrara leaves France The Causes of the Delay of the Council The Pope's Legates sent to Trent The Prohibition of Books taken into Consideration The French Ambassadors arrive at Trent The French King's Reflections on the Proceedings of the Council The French Clergy arrive there The Pope's Fear of them Maximilian Son of Ferdinand the Emperor chosen King of the Romans The Emperor dislikes the Proceedings of the Council The Spanish Ambassadors received in the Council The Fathers of Trent much Displeased with the Peace made in France The Queen of Navarr cited to Rome and many of the Bishops by the Inquisition The French King's Declaration against these Proceedings The Queen Mother of France complains of the Council The Pope Gains the Cardinal of Lorrain to his Side That Councils have no Authority over Princes The Ambassadors of France Protest against the Council and retire to Venice The Council ended The Censure of the Council The State of Religion in Piedmont A Tumult in Bavaria for the Cup. The Romish Reasons against granting Marriage to the Clergy and the Cup to the Laity The Siege and Surrender of Havre de Grace Charles the IX declared out of his Minority The Scotch Affairs HAVING thus dispatched what concerns the first French War I now return to the Affairs of the Rest of Christendom in the Year 1562. And here I will first begin with the History of the Council of Trent Whilst the recalling this Council was agitated with great heat the Cardinal of Ferrara the Pope's Legate in France after the Revocation of the Edict of January seeing all things there in the state he desired he took his leave of the King and returned into Italy Before he went however he took care to furnish the King with Money to carry on the Siege of Orleans which he took up of the Bankers of Paris He had raised a vast Expectation of this Council in the minds of all those who had yet any Kindness left in their Hearts for the See of Rome and the more because they thought the Edict of January which had caused the War would then fall of Course it being made only by way of Provision till a Council should determine otherwise As the Cardinal was in his Journey Fifty Horsemen came out of Orleans under the Command of one Monsieur Dampier and surprized all his Mules Horses and Treasures and when he sent a Trumpeter to demand them again the Prince of Conde made Answer That this magnificent and warlike Equipage did not befit Pastors and the Successors of St. Peter but rather Commanders and Generals of War who were in Arms for Religion Yet if he pleased to recal the 200000. Crowns which he had furnished the Triumvirate with to carry on the War against him and the Italian Forces out of France he would then restore all he had taken to his Eminence The Council which was appointed to meet at Easter of the former Year was delay'd to the beginning of this the Pope putting it off because he was as much afraid of the Spanish Bishops as of the French National Council He had been necessitated to grant great Contributions to King Philip to be levied upon his Clergy and he thought the Bishops would on that score come with exasperated Minds to the Council and all his Thoughts were bent on the keeping the Papal Power undiminished rather than on satisfying the just Compaints of the Nations At last being forced by an unresistable necessity he sent Hercules Gonzaga Jerom Seripand and Stanislaus Hosio out of his Bosom to be his Legates at Trent And not long after he added to them James Simoneta and Mark Sitico Bishop of Altemberg in Transylvania who had orders to open the Council again the Eighteenth of January 1562. That those things might be therein treated of which the Legates should propose and in the same Order for the taking away the Calamities of these Times the appeasing the Controversies of Religion the Restraining deceitful Tongues the Correcting the Abuses of depraved Manners and the obtaining a True and Christian Peace by such means as the Holy Council should approve of The French Clergy insisted That mention should be made of a Free and General Council to be call'd for the Quieting of their Differences because their Protestants would never submit to the Determinations of the former Sessions On the contrary the Spaniards professed they would only continue the former Council and therefore they used a middle way and decreed A Council should be Celebrated The Spanish Bishops were as much dissatisfied because all the Power of proposing was given to the Legates and taken from the other Bishops and complained of it to King Philip who Ordered his Ambassador to treat the Pope about it that the Council might be free The Pope Answered the Ambassador That he was not at leisure to dispute about Ablative Cases Positive and the Genders of Words and that he had something else to do And in private he spoke of the Calamities and Dangers of France with the same unconcernedness For when one of the French Cardinals deplored the Danger the See of Rome was in of losing that Kingdom he replied What then if as long as I am Bishop of this City I shall not be forced to abate any thing of the Greatness of my Table and the Magnificence of my Buildings And when they insisted to have the Manners of Men and the Discipline of the Church throughly Reform'd he said In that Particular he would satisfie France to the full and take such Care in it that they should all of them Repent that they had mentioned a Reformation Adding That he foresaw that the Kingdom would be divided on the account of Religion but he did not value the loss of it a Farthing All which Expressions saith Thuanus Are in the Letters of the French Ambassador that was then at Rome out
the Council together with the Coadjutors of other Bishops that so he might have the more Votes believing he was now in the utmost degree of Danger and as if he had not had enough of his own he borrowed some Prelates of his Friends too And amongst them he got leave of the Duke of Savoy that Anthony Bobba Bishop of Cassale who was then that Princes Ambassador in the Court of Rome and Lewis Vanini de Teodolis Bishop de Bertinoro a Person of great Learning and Eloquence who had excused his Attendance in the Council upon his want of Health should now forthwith be dispatched to Trent When this last was going thither he is said to have consolated and strengthened the good Pope in his Anxiety and Fears of the Event with an Assurance That he would certainly get the Victory over the Council which was a very Acceptable Saying to the Pope and that he for that good News Kiss'd the Bishop of Bertinoro when he took his Leave to go to Trent bidding him be careful to get the Victory he had promised him And when after this some flying Reports came to Rome that some Questions were moved in the Council to the prejudice of the Papal Authority by the Bishops he was so moved at it that in the Consistory before all the Cardinals he cried out he and the Romans were betrayed whilest he maintained an Army of Enemies at Trent with great expence By which expression he aimed at the Italian Bishops who were his Pensioners and kept there by him in great numbers And Jo. Baptista Adriani writes He was just upon the Point of inhibiting the Council and had done it if Cosmus Duke of Florence had not averted him from that dangerous and shameful project The 8th day of September Maximilian the Eldest Son of Ferdinand the Emperor was chosen King of the Romans at Francfort upon the Maine in a Diet there assembled for that purpose Stroschen a Polander by birth who was then Ambassador for Solyman the Emperor of the Turks was present at Francfort and saw this Ceremony being sent to settle a Truce for eight years between those Princes which had been a long time sought by Busbequius at Constantinople The Emperor was by this League to pay Thirty Miliions of Hungarian Duckets for a Tribute by the year In this Diet the Princes of the Augustane Confession and their Allies gave in their opinion concerning the Council in Writing as they promised they would in the Convention at Naumburg They said they could not come to this Impious Council which was Indicted by Pope Pius the Fourth because not so assembled as was prescribed in their Appeals to a pious free and lawful Council given in heretofore in several Diets of Germany This Diet ended about the end of December and the Emperor went by Wormes Spire Weissemburg Strasburg Schlestat and Basil to Friburg in Brisgow being in all places received with great Honour and in the last of these places he held a Diet for Alsatia and then by Constance he went in February to Inspruck where he staid some time on the account of the Council of Trent which he hoped might be ended in the less time if he were near it The French Ambassadors when they came to the Council of Trent were furnished with certain Instructions what they were to ask but had Orders to suppress them till they had conferr'd with the Emperors Ambassadors which happened to have much what the same demands But by this time the Court of France seeing there was no care taken to satisfie the Emperor and that things were carried with great slowness ordered their Ambassador to open their Grievances which were contain'd in Thirty four Articles and were accordingly unfolded to the Council the 4th of January as they may be seen at large in Polano his History Pag. 609. I shall not here trouble the Reader with them The 10th of January the King of France ordered his Ambassador to assure the Pope that the Annals which were taken away in the Assembly of the States of France lately held at Orleans should for the future be paid to the Pope he hoping by this means to have him more ready to grant his desires tending to the peace of the Church which the Pope's Ambassador largely promised On the 14th of February a Decree was made concerning the Residence of Bishops and Pastors with great difficulty and opposition which all tended to the obtaining the Judgment of the Council That the Pope has full power to feed and govern the Universal Church The French who hold that a Council is above the Pope were contented to conceal their opinion in this point for fear the Pope should take that opportunity to dissolve the Council without any good done by it But then they were resolved to defend their said opinion if it were opposed whatever happened and upon no terms to lose or yield it King Philip also laboured very hard that the power of the Bishops should be raised and that of the Pope and the Conclave brought lower which they of the Pope's party interpreted as a design to diminish the Spanish Liberties because the Bishops and Chapters of Spain would be more subjected to the will of the King than the Court of Rome would By which means they at last prevailed so far upon that jealous Nation that the power of the Bishops in the end was very much abated and that of the Pope was enlarged and exalted and the Bishops were contented to act as the Popes Delegates and by his Authority and in his Name to exercise their Functions About this time it was that the Cardinal of Lorrain went again to the Emperor to Inspruck which caused a great fear in the Pope's party in the Council for that they suspected he went to adjust with that Prince the ways to bring the Papal power under In the beginning of March the Emperor wrote a Letter to the Pope after he had consulted the Bishops of Quinque Ecclesiae who went to Inspruck to him wherein he signified to his Holiness That after his Son in the last Diet was Elected King of the Romans and Crown'd and that he had visited his Cities upon the Rhine he was come to Inspruck to promote the Affairs of the Church in the Council as became the Supreme Advocate and procurator of the Church but that to his great grief he understood that things were so far from going as was to be desired and as the publick State of Affairs required that it was to be feared if speedy remedies were not applied the Council would be ended in such manner as it would give offence to all Christendom and become ridiculous to all those who had made a defection from the Church of Rome and fix them more obstinately in those opinions they had embraced tho' very differing from the Orthodox Faith. That there had not been any Session celebrated for a long time and that it was commonly given out the Fathers and Doctors in
a Holy League amongst the Popish Princes 245. Loses his Interest in the Emperor's Court 255. Elector vide Albert 14. The Elector's Answer to the Emperor at Ratisbon 281. The Electors of the Rhine meet about the Elector of Cologne 356. The Electors separate their Councils at the Diet of Ratisbon 375. Ecclesiastical Electors severe for the Interim 477. And hold Synods wherein the Trinkets of Popery are restored 481. They complain of the Soldiers who came from Magdebourg 535. Emperor how chosen 19. Now subject to the Pope in his Election 38. Empire vide Princes English refuse to pay First-fruits for Benefices of small value 63. English Bibles Printed at Paris 241. Enthusiasts begin to Preach in Germany 52. Erard Bishop of Liege dies 240. Erasmus writes to Frederick in Luther's behalf 21. And to Luther encouraging him to go on but calmly ibid. And to Rome in favour of Reuchlin 31. Writes about Free-will 75. VVrites against the Reformers under the Title of Gospel-teachers 122. VVrites to Campegio to promote Vnity in Germany 133. His Jest upon Eckius and Faber 139. Quarrels with Luther again about Free-will 170. Dies 209. His Colloquies forbidden by the Delegate Cardinals 236. Erixon Gustavus wrests Sweden from Christiren King of Denmark 62. Marries Steno Stura's Daughter ibid. Ernest D. of Brunswick taken Prisoner by the Emperor 427. Is set at liberty 428. Exorcisms with the Ceremonies 481. Eysenach a Town in Thuringia a Convention of the Protestants there 244. F. FAber John Deputy to the Bishop of Constance at Zurick 57. Faber Jacobus Stapulensis persecuted by the Sorbonists 98. The King of France writes on his behalf out of Spain ibid. Farel William Preaches at Metz 290. Farnese Cardinal his Speech to the Emperor against the Protestants 264. Retires from the Emperors Court 266. Goes to the Diet of Wormes with the Emperor 348. Goes from thence to Rome 349. Farnese Octavio General of the Pope's Troops which help'd the Emperor against the Protestants 394. His Parma secur'd to him by P. Julius the III 492. Puts a French Garrison into Parma 513. Is Cited to Rome ibid. Pursues the Business of Parma 514. Being supported by the French King it occasions a VVar ibid. Ferdinand Arch-Duke of Austria Marries 50. Executes the Ban severely against the Lutherans 54. Claims the Kingdom of Hungary after K. Lewis's death 105. Is made K. of Bohemia 110. His claim to Hungary what 114. Made K. of the Romans 144. The Terms upon which the Protestant Princes promise to acknowledge him 157. Makes a Treaty of Peace with the D. of Saxony 173. Allows Ulric to be D. of Wirtemberg ibid. Inhibits the Prosecutions of the Imperial Chamber 184. Suspends them till the Meeting of the next Diet 185. Sends an Embassie to the Switzers not to aid the French against the Emperor 207. Is routed by the Turks 231. Goes to the Diet at Haguenaw 267. His Proposals to the Protestants there 268. His Answer there about the Procedings of the Imperial Chamber 269. Prepares to invade Hungary 270. Sends Alaski his Ambassador to Solyman ibid. Is overthrown at Buda 284. His Answer to the Austrian Nobility 287. His Speech to the Diet at Spire 288. Opens the Diet at Nurenberg 298. Makes an unsuccessful War in Hungary 304. Opens the Diet at Nurenberg 305. His Answer to the Protestants Petition 307. Is acknowledged King of the Romans by the D. of Saxony 325. His Daughter is Betrothed to the D. of Saxony's Son ibid. Opens the Diet at Wormes 343. Answers the Deputes of the Protestants 345. Goes to the Diet at Ratisbon 374. Denounces War against the Saxons 409. His Answer to the Bohemians 417. His Demands to the Bohemians 420. His Letters to the Bohemians 423. He Answers their Letters 424. He writes to them again 425. His Commissioners to the Convention of States in Bohemia 426. His Army ibid. Writes again to the Bohemians 428. Writes to them again from Leutmeritz 431. Goes to Prague and forces the Bohemians to submit 434. Obtains vast Sums of Money from the Free Towns 436. Raises Money of the States at teh Diet 460. Receives Constance and imposes strict Conditions upon them 474. Complains at the Diet of Augsbourg of the Irruptions of the Turks 511. Aid is granted him by the Princes at Norimberg 512. Treats with D. Maurice about Peace at Lintz 556. Goes to Passaw to Mediate a Peace 563. Presses D. Maurice to stay a while for the Emperor's Answer 568. Goes again to the Emperor to Villach ibid. Brings the Emperor's Answer back to Passaw 569. He there answers the French Ambassador in the Emperor's Name 570. Opens the Diet of Augsbourg 598. Publishes an Edict about Religion 602. Which is answered by the States of his Country ibid. He comes to Augsbourg 607. Opens the Diet with a Speech ibid. What effect it had upon the Diet 610. Banishes two hundred Protestant Ministers out of Bohemia ibid. Invites the Princes to the Augsbourg Diet 612. Mediates between Papists and Protestants at Augsbourg 624. Answers those Papers that were dispersed in the Diâ—t 625. His Answer to the Protestants Reply 626. Sollicites the Princes of Germany against the Turk 628. Answers the Address of the Austrian Nobility 630. Replies to the Austrians Answer 631. Is Sollicited by the Bavarians for Liberty of Conscience 633. He goes into Bohemia ibid. Fevre d'Estaples vide Faber Stapulensis Fisher Bishop of Rochester Beheaded for not acknowledging King Henry Supream Head of the Church 180. Made Cardinal in Prison ib. Flisted Peter burnt at Cologne for his Religion 121. Florentines aid the French against Charles 131. Send Ambassadors to him with Submissions 132. They yield to him after a years Siege ibid. Fox Edw. Bishop of Hereford his Speech to the Protestants at Smalcald 188. Desires a Private Conference 189. Which is allowed ib. France a Persecution of the Lutherans there 175. Francis King of France Competitor for the Empire 13. Is troubled that Charles V. is preferr'd 19. Makes a League with the Switzers 48. Takes Milan 76. Besieges Parma ibid. Is taken Prisoner there 79 Writes into France in Favour of Faber Stapulensis 98. Falls sick in Prison 102. Treats a Peace with Char. V. ibid. Leaves two Sons Hostages in Spain 103. But makes a League with the Pope and Venetians against the Emperor 105. VVrites to the Princes of the Empire 108. Publishes an Apology for engaging in VVar with Char. V. ibid. Sends Letters of Defiance to Char. V. 112. Makes a league with Henry VIII ibid. Challenges Char. V. to a Duel 112. Concludes a Peace with him at Cambray 121. The Articles of it ibid. His Letter to the Protestant Princes 149. Marries Catharine de Medicis to his Eldest Son Henry 168. He goes in Procession to St. Genevieve 178. He writes to the German Princes to take off Misunderstandings 179. Sends Bellay to Smalcald to the Protestants 182. His Opinion about the Points of Controversie in Germany 186. He offers to enter into a Leage with the Protestants 187.
several Towns for the Protestants 388. Routed by Duke Maurice 504. Taken into the service of Duke Maurice Assists the Magdeburghers 514. Henry the VII Emperor refuses to pay Allegiance to the Pope 38. Henry the VIII Writes against Luther 50. Is called defender of the Faith Ibid. Is Pensioner to Charles the V. 51. His Daughter Mary is Betrothed to Charles Ibid. Writes to the Princes of the House of Saxony against Luther 65. Receives a Golden Rose from the Pope 75. Writes a Scornful answer to Luther's Letter 101. Makes a League with France in the absence of King Francis 102. Makes a League with Francis against Charles 112. His answer to the Protestant Princes of Germany 150. Is dissatisfied about his Marriage with Catharine 169. Sues to be Divorced Ibid. They are Dilatory at Rome Ibid. He Marries Anne Boleyn 170. Is declared in Parliament head of the Church Ibid. Revokes Peter Pence Ibid. Sends Fox Bishop of Hereford Ambassador to the Protestants at Smalcald 188. His Ambassadors winter at Wittemberg 205. His Letter to the Protestants Ibid. He beheads Anne Boleyn 206. Quells a rising in England 209. His Reasons against the Council of Mantua 231. His Reasons against the Council at Vicenza 250. He enacts in Parliament several things about Religion 251. Marries Anne of Cleve Ibid. His Answer to the Elector of Saxony's Ambassador 255. Beheads romwel Earl of Essex 267. Is divorced from Anne of Cleve Ibid. Marries Catharine Howard Ibid. Burns Papists and Protestants for Religion 269. Beheads Catharine Howard for Adultery 289. Marries Catharine Parr Ibid. Makes a successful War in Scotland 324. He makes an Expedition into France 327. Takes Bologne Ibid. Makes a Treaty of Peace with France 355. Forewarns the Protestants in Germany of their danger 356. Dies 418. Henry of Zutphen suffers for Religion in Germany 75. Henry Duke of Saxony refuses to change his Religion to gain the Dutchy 249. But gains it by George's Death 250. Henry Dauphin of France has a Daughter 382. Henry the II. of France succeeds to Francis the I. 424. Is Crowned 435. The Ceremony of it Ibid. Persecutes the Lutherans severely in France 456. Enters Paris in State 484. Crowns his Queen Ibid. Persecutes the Lutherans Ibid. Makes a League with the Switzers Ibid. Regains several Places from England 485. Publishes another Edict against the Lutherans 492. Sends a Letter to the Pope about his assisting Octavio Farnese 514. He declares War against the Emperor with his reasons 517. Justifies himself from Leagues with the Turk 518. Sends the Abbot of Bellozane to Trent with a Letter to the Council Ibid. He Publishes an Edict against the Pope 521. And another against the Lutherans Ibid. Answers the Emperors Declaration 522. Hinders the Switzers from sending Ambassadors to the Council of Trent 528. He sends Ambassadors to Duke Maurice 529. Makes Peace with the Pope 548. He declares War against the Emperor 553. Calls himself Protector of the Liberties of Germany 554. He takes Toul Verdun Metz 555. Takes an Oath of Allegiance from the People of Metz Ibid. His Treaty with the Strasburghers 557. His answer to the Princes Ambassadors 558. The reasons of his leaving Germany 559. His answer to the Switzers Ibid. He Wastes Luxembourg 563. His Ambassadors Speech at the Treaty of Passaw 564. He Sollicites again by Letters from Aichstadt 567. He brings his Men from Luxembourg back into Artois 571. Is offended with the Pacification at Passaw 572. Writes to the Emperor 576. Sends a Declartion to the States of the Empire 577. Carries on the War in the Low Countries 603. But is beaten in Tuscany in the Sienese War 604. His Letter to the Diet at Francfort Ibid. Takes Casal 613. Carries on the War into Montferrat 617. Hereford vide Fox Herman vide Cologne Hesse vide Philip Landgrave Hildesheym a City in the Dutchy of Brunswick embraces the Protestant Religion 300. they are accused by their Bishop to the Emperor 313. Hogostratus James a Dominican writes against Luther 4. Commissioned by Maximilian to Examine Jewish Books 30. Writes against Reuchlin Ibid. Is cast by the Bishop of Spire Ibid. Appeals to Rome Ibid. Leaves his Cause Ibid. Examines two Augustine Friars at Brussels 63. Holland an Inundation there 137. Hooper John Bishop of Glocester burnt for his Religion 607. Huberine Caspar an Interimist Preaches at Augsbourg 535. Hugh Capet makes himself King of France 150. Huglie John a Protestant burnt for Religion by the Bishop of Constance 105. Hungarians beg for assistance at the Diet of Spire 324. Their Horse join Duke Maurice 409. Husse John Preaches Wiclef's Doctrine 46. Appeals from the Pope to Christ Ibid. Went to the Council of Constance with safe Conduct 47. There burnt Ibid. Hutton Ulricus a Noble Man of Franconia 65. Favours Luther and dies Ibid. I JAmes the V. of Scotland Marries King Francis's Daughter 209. His Queen dies 230. Makes a War with England unsuccessfully 304. Dies Ibid. Jerome Bishop of Brandenbourg 2. Jerome of Prague burnt at the Council of Constance 47. Jerome Bishop of Ascoli summons Luther by P. Leo's Order to appear at Rome 5. Jews compared with Roman Clergy 29. Illyricus Matthias Flaccius Writes against the Adiaphorists 498. Imperial Chamber Vide Protestants is set up again in the Diet at Augsbourg 466. The Judges fly from Spire for fear of the Confederate Princes 557. They answer Marquess Albert's Deputation about the Franconian Bishops 577. They decree in Favour of the Bishops 578. Indulgences Preacht up in Germany 1 2. Confirmed by Pope Clement's Decree in the Extravagants 9. Why granted 273. Indult vide P. Paul the III. P. Innocent the III. Decreed to the Electoral Princes a right of chusing the Emperor 21. His decree de Majoritate Obedientia 107. Inquisition its Original 434. Inquisitors about the Emperor's Edict of Religion in the Netherlands how they proceed 498. Interim drawn up at Augsbourg 454. The heads of it 458. Often Revised and Corrected 459. Sent to Rome ibid. The Electors differ in their Opinion about it ibid. Those who draw it up are rewarded 468. It is disliked on both sides Ibid. Confuted by the Saxon Divines 481. Joachim Elector of Brandenbourg sends an Embassie to the Elector of Saxony 242. Sends Agents to Eysenach 244. Made Geneali ssimo against the Turks 292. He Strikes in with the Papists in the War against the Smalcaldick League 375. Interposes for a Peace 418. With the Landgrave Ibid. Intereedes for Saxony 427. And his Life was spared at his Intercession 428. Intercedes for the Landgrave 429. Remonstrates to the Emperor for him at Hall 433. Calls Bucer to Augsbourg 454. Angry with him for not subscribing the Interim 457. Receives the Interim 461. Acts with Duke Maurice in the Magdeburgick War 505 506. He sends Ambassadors to the Conncil of Trent 526. His Ambassadors with those of D. Maurice Sollicite the Emperor about the Landgrave 531. John XXII P. vide Aquinas John King of Denmark overthrows the Swedes 62. Dying leaves his Son
Christian of six Years of Age Ibid. John succeeds his Brother Frederick of Saxony 84. Goes to Franck-hausen against Muncer's Gang Ibid. Comes to the Diet at Augsbourg 127. Excuses the Landgrave's going from Augsbourg to the Emperor 131. Procures the removal of the Guards from the Gates of Augsbourg 131. Is cited by the Emperor to Cologne 141. Sends his Son and goes himself to Smalcald 142. Writes to the Confederate Princes to hinder an Election of a King of the Romans 143. Protests by his Son against Ferdinand's Election to be King of the Romans 144. Pleads Age and demands safe conduct before his going to the Diet at Spire 153. Gives an Answer to the Elector of Mentz and the Prince Palatine 154. The conditions upon which he would acknowledge a King of the Romans 157. Dies 161. John Frederick Son to John D. of Saxony answers the Emperors and Popes Ambassadors 163. Yields to acknowledge Ferdinand K. of the Romans 173. Answers Vergerius's Propositions for a Council 181. Negotiates with Ferdinand to stop the Prosecutions of the Imperial Chamber 185. Goes to Smalcald 189. Negotiates with Henry VIII of England 205. Quarrels with his Cousin George D. of Saxony 206. He communicates the Embassy of the Elector of Brandenbourg to the Landgrave 243. His Answer to the Brandenbourghers Embassy Ibid. Goes to the Convention at Eysenach 244. Quarrels with the D. of Brunswick 247. Writes to the French K. in behalf of the D. of Wirtemberg 249. He sends Ambassadors into England 252. He Answers the Emperors Letters 263. Quarrels with Naumburg about a Bishop 288. Puts in Amstorfius Ibid. Makes War upon the D. of Brunswick with the Landgrave 298. The Declarations of the Reasons of their undertaking Ibid. Their answer to the Message of the States of the Empire 299. Intercedes to no purpose for the D. of Cleve 313. Accommodates with King Ferdinand 325. His Son is affianced to K. Ferdinand's Daughter Ibid. Writes to the Emperor about the D. of Brunswick 354. He armes against the Emperor 384. He and the Landgrave declare War against the Emperor 385. Sends his Son John William Ambassador to D. Maurice 406. Writes to Ulm to the Confederates for Assistance 409. Is in danger upon the Retreat of the Army 412. Raises contributions upon Papists Ibid. Writes to the States of D. Maurice's Countrey 414. Besieges Leipzick 417. Takes most of Maurice's Towns and his own again Ibid. Writes to the City of Strasbourg 419. Takes Rochlitz by Storm and Marquess Albert of Brandenbourg Prisoner 420. His Ambassadors to the Bohemians 424. He takes some Towns from D. Maurice 425. Is overthrown at the Forest of Lochawer 427. Taken Prisoner Ibid. Condemned to die Ibid. Bears it bravely Ibid Accepts the Emperors Proposals 428. Absolves his Subjects from their Oath of Allegiance 429. His Heroical Courage in refusing the Interim 462. He is used with great Harshness 463. Declares he will not perswade his Sons to receive the Interim 469. Is carried Prisoner into the Low Countries 473. And kept with the Emperor 474. Is brought back into Germany with the Emperor 496. Is dismissed by the Emperor 573. Sollicites to be restored upon Maurice's Death 587. Dies 596. The differences between him and the Elector Augustus 597. John Prince Palatine steps between the Landgrave and the D. of Brunswick at the Diet of Spire 319. John Marquess of Brandenbourg answers to the Saxon's and Landgrave's Letter 387â— Refuses the Interim 460. Illebius Joannes Agricola Preaches up Antinomianism 244. Recants 245. Assists in Drawing up the Interim 454. Jubilee Reduced to 50 Years by Pope Clement 9. P. Julius II. obliged to call a Council in 2 Years 26. Refuses to appear at that of Pisa Ibid. Calls another at the Church of St. John de Lateran in Rome Ibid. Excommunicates the Pisan Cardinals 27. Dies Ibid. His decree concerning Appeals 35. P. Julius III. de Monte Inaugurated 492. gives his Hat to a Youth Ibid. Secures Parma to Octavio Farnese 492. Publishes Bulls to call a Council at Trent 503. They Offended many 505. Cites Octavio Farnese to Rome 513. Writes lovingly to the Switzers 514. Publishes Indulgences at the Council of Trent 542. Publishes a Declaration of Thanksgiving for the Reduction of England 611. Dies 614. K. KIng of the Romans terms of choosing one 157. The manner of their Elections 158. Knights the ceremony of their Creation 37. Knipperdoling a great incendiary in Munster 193. Made publick Hangman of the Town 194. Is taken at the Storm of Munster 201. and executed with John of Leyden 202. L. LAndgrave vide Philip Landgrave of Hesse Landre Francis de a Preacher at Paris 297. Articles exhibited against him ibid. His Answer ibid. Recants 309. Latimer Hugh burnt for his Religion at Oxford 619. Langus Matthew Bishop of Gurk vide Maximilian Made Cardinal 27. Lateran Fourth Council its Dignity 26. Immortality of the Soul debated in it 27. Lautrec leads an Army into Italy 110. Takes Alexandria and Pavia ibid. Besieges Naples 115. Dies before it ibid. Lenoncour Robert Cardinal made Bishop of Metz 499. Assists the French King in the taking of Metz 555. Pope Leo X. Publishes Bulls of Indulgences 1. Sends Cajetan to the Diet at Augsbourg 4. Summons Luther to appear at Rome 5. Writes to Cajetan to fetch Luther to Augsbourg and to command all persons to declare their abhorrence of his Opinions ibid. Writes to Frederick D. of Saxony to abandon Luther 6. And to Venize to command him to take care of Luther ibid. Publishes a Bull Nov. 8. 1518. For Indulgences 12. Favours the Election of Francis I. 14. Meets him at Bononia after the defeat of the Switzers at Marignano 14. Concludes the fourth Lateran Council 27. Answers the Elector of Saxony's Letter 34. Publishes a Bull against Luther 35. Condemns his Books and gives him 60 daies to repent Ibid. Else he Excommunicates him 36. Makes a League with the Switzers 48. And with Charles V. 50. Dies Ibid. Leva Antonio de Charles V.'s General in Provence 208. Unsuccessful there Ibid. Lewis XII Sends Ambassadors to the Council of Pisa 26. His Kingdom put under an Interdict by P. Julius 27. Lewis K. of Hungary craves aid from the Diet at Nurenberg 54. Overthrown by Solyman and killed 105. Lewis Prince Palatine stands up for the preserving Luther's safe conduct at Wormes 44. Sends Ambassadors to Smalcald to the Protestants 153. Dies 321. Lewis D. of Bavaria vide Bavaria Leyden John of a Taylor 192. Preaches Anabaptism at Munster Ibid. Incenses the Mad Multitude 193. Marries Matthew's Widow 194. Publishes Polygamy by Inspiration 195. Is made King of the Anabaptists Ibid. Administers the Supper to his Subjects 196. Beheads one of his Queens 199. Is obstinate to the last 201. Is taken in the surprize of the Town by Opersteyn Ibid. Garried about for a sight 202. Executed Ibid. His Body set in a Cage upon a Tower in Munster Ibid. Lindaw the City of Lindaw receives the Interim 472. Lintz a Town of Austria upon the
The demands of their Divines in the Council 546. The Protestant Princes make a League at Nuremberg 614. They acquaint the Emperor with it ibid. Their answer in the Diet of Augsbourg to the Papists Allegations 623. Their reply to Ferdinand's Answer to their Papers 626. Prussia vide Albert of Brandenbourg vide Sigismund of Poland vide Wolfgang grand-Master R. RAtisbon Catholick Lords there with Campegio confirm the Decree at Wormes against Luther 74. Make Regulations for the Reformation of the Clergy 75. The Princes do not meet at Ratisbon at the Diet 110. The Diet removes thither from Spire 155. The Articles of the Treaty of Nurenberg are there confirmed 160. A Diet there 272. The Acts of the Diet at Ratisbon 275. The Presidents and Witnesses at the Conference 276. The Acts of the Diet 278. The Decree of the Diet 283. They promise Aid against the Turks ib. A Conference is appointed there 351. The Names of the Conferrers ibid. It is refused by the Papists 352. The Conference opened 358. The Names of the Presidents ibid. The Points disputed upon ibid. It breaks up 359. A Diet there 374. Reformation in Germany its Original 273. Religion those of the Reformed Religion begin to form a League 105. Renate Prince of Orange is killed 327. Reuchlin John Capnio Commissioned to examine Jewish Books 30. His Answer to Maximilian ibid. Answers Phefercorne's Book ibid. Is Cited to Mentz ibid. Excepts to Hogostratus as a Judge ibid. Appeals to the Pope ibid. Is acquitted at Rome ibid. Dies 55. Rhodes taken by Solyman 57. Richard Elector of Triers vide Triers Ridley Nicholas Bishop of London burnt at Oxford for Religion 619. Rochell an Insurrection there 304. Quieted 305. Rome Court of Rome it 's Description 24. A great Inundation there 137. Roman Clergy vide Jews Romans vide King of the Romans Rotman Bernard Preaches up the Reformation at Munster 190. Declares himself an Anabaptist 192. S. SAmson Friar Preaches Indulgences at Zurick 22. Savoy D. of Savoy quarrels with Geneva 203. Loses most part of his Country to the French ibid. Accuses the French King 323. Dies 602. Saxons embrace Luther's Doctrine of the Eucharist 97. Saxony Prince of Saxony's Answer to the Arbitrators 159. Quarrels in the Churches there about Indifferent things 481. Scherteline Sebastian marches towards Inspruck with his Army for the Protestants 388. Leaves the Camp 406. Retires from Strasbourg to Constance 418. A Fine is set upon his Head by the Emperor 554. He raises men in Germany for the French King ibid. Is reconciled to the Emperor and King Ferdinand 594. Schwabian Confederates beat Ulric D. of Wirtemberg 80. They refuse a Truce with the Boors ibid. They rout the Boors at Saltzbourg 81. An Account of the Schwabian League 82. The Schwabian Cities mediate betwixt Albert and the City of Noremberg 562. Schwinfurt a Town upon the Main there the Princes mediate an Accommodation 156. The Treaty is removed to Norenberg 160. Sepsy vide Sepusio Sepusio claims the Crown of Hungary after K. Lewis's death 105. vide Vaivod of Transylvania Dies 269. His Son put under Solyman ' Protection 270. Servetus Michael Burnt at Genoa 593. Seymour Edw. D. of Somerset Protector of K. Edward VI. and the Kingdom in his Minority 418. Is Imprisoned 485. Releas'd and Marries the D. of Northumberland's Daughter 492. Is again made a Prisoner 528. And Beheaded 538. Sforza Francis obtains the Dutchy of Milan of Charles V. 122. Marries Christina the K. of Denmark's Daughter 174. Dies 180. Sibylla of Cleve Wife to John Frederick Elector of Saxony sollicites the Emperor for her Husband 429. Is received Graciously by the Emperor ibid. She dies 596. Sickius Francis at War with the Bishop of Triers 56. Sickness Sweating Sickness in Germany 121. Sidonius Michael a Champion for the Mass at Augsbourg 437. Assists in Compiling the Interim 454. Siena revolts from the Emperor 573. Is Besieged by the D. of Florence 598. Retaken by the Emperor's Forces 615. Sigismund takes Cusanus Prisoner 36. Appeals from the Pope to a Couucil ibid. Calls the Council of Constance 47. Begs the assistance of the Empire against Zisca ibid. Sigismund K. of Poland Wars against Albert Great Master of the Teutonick Order 99. Makes him D. of Prussia ibid. His Answer to the Emperor's Ambassadors 348. His Plea given in by his Ambassador Alaskia about the Dutchy of Prussia 445. He dies 450. Sixtus IV's Decree concerning the Virgin Mary 377. Sleidan John sent by the Protestants Ambassador into England 352. Sent Deputy from Strasbourg to the Council of Trent 529. He applies himself to the Emperor's Ambassadors 531. Complains of Gropper to the Council of Trent 535. Joins with the Wirtemberg and Saxon Ambassadors in their Sollicitations with the Emperor's Ambassadors 537. Takes leave of the Emperor's Ambassador who stops him 545. Leaves Trent 546. Deputy from Strasbourg to the French King 557. Treats with him and the Constable ibid. Dies 638. Smalcald a Town in Franconia belonging to the Landgrave of Hesse vide Protestant League at Smalcald 142. The Confederates of the League expostulate upon the motion to chase a King of the Romans 143. The League renewed 189. A Convention of the Protestants there 212. Solyman makes War in Hungary 50. Takes Belgrade 51. And Rhodes 57. Invades Hungary 103. Besieges Vienna 121. Breaks up the Siege ibid. Makes a new Irruption into Austria 161. His Troops are defeated ibid. Imprisons Alaski Ferdinand's Ambassador 271. Strangles his Son Mustapha 594. Solmes Count vide Naves Spira Francis his dismal Story 475. Spires Bishop of Spires appointed to hear Reuchlin's Cause 30. Decrces in favour of him against Hogostratus ibid. A Diet held there 103. The States there differ about Religion 104. But their Breaches are made up ibid. And they make a Decree about Religion ibid. The Princes Assembled here write to the Senate of Strasbourg about the Mass 116. The Diet there assembled 118. They refuse the Deputies of Strasbourg to sit in the Diet ibid. They make a Decree about Religion ibid. The Princes of the Reformed Religion protest against the Decree 119. As also the Free Cities 120. A Diet call'd thither 152. Removed to Ratisbon 155. Another Diet called there 288. A mighty full Diet 317. A Decree there which angers the Papists 325. States of the Empire Some at Ratisbon desire to referr every thing to the Pope's Legate 279. They treat with tho D. of Cleve to restore Guelderland 285. They send a Message from Nurenberg to the Saxon and Landgrave about the D. of Brunswick 299. Write to the Switzers not to aid the French King 321. They acquaint Maurice the Elector of Brandenbourg with the Emperor's Resolution about the Landgrave 442. Strasbourg Priests marry there 66. The Bishop cites them ib. They justifie themselves ibid. The Bishop writes to Campegio complaining of the Senate 73. The Senate justifie themselves to Campegio ibid. And Parly with him upon his Answer 74. The Popish Clergy complain against the Senate to the
The States of the Empire treat with Cleve about the Restitution of Guelderland to the Emperor The Supplication of the Nobility of Austria to King Ferdinand for obtaining free Exercise of Religion King Ferdinand's Answer The Austrians renew their Supplications A Quarrel betwixt the Elector of Saxony and Canons of Naumburg about the Bishop 1542. Luther writes against the Bishop A Diet at Spire King Ferdinand's Speech in the Diet. Gropper recommends Bucer to the Arch-bishop of Cologne Who thereupon comes to Cologne The Lady Catharine Howard Queen of England Beheaded King Henry's Sixth Wife The French Ambassador's Speech at Spire The Speech of the Pope's Legate in the Diet of Spire The Catholick Princes and States consent to the Council offered by the Pope at Trent But the Protestants protest against it The French King prepares for War. An Expedition against the Turk under the Conduct of the Elector of Brandenburg A Quarrel betwixt the Elector and Duke Maurice of Saxony Luther's Camp-Sermon His Position condemned by the Pope The Explication of that Position Luther's other Military-Sermon Luther's Prayer against the Fury of the Turks Of the Original of the Turks and of their Kings The Marquess of Pescara accuses the French King. The King purges himself Prayers appointed at Paris for the Success of the War. The calling of the Council of Trent The French King declares War And Longueville and Rossem invade Brabant The French King demands Aid from the Turk against the Emperor The Form of inquiring who are Lutherans Francis de Landre a Preacher at Paris The Articles of Doctrine proposed to him His Answer Two Dominicans Preach the Gospel at Metz And so did William Farell But the Emperor wrote to the Senate to suffer no Change in Religion Locusts in Germany and Italy The Duke of Saxony and Lantgrave make a successful War against the Duke of Brunswick Their Declaration of the Reasons of it The Diet of Nurimberg The Message of the States of the Empire to the Duke of Saxony and Lantgrave Their Answer The Decree of the Diet of Nurimberg Contarini accused of Miscarriages Contarini and Fregoso Cardinals die The Chancellor of France cast into Prison Otho Prince Palatine and the people of Heildesseim embrace the Reformed Religion The Emperours Letter to the Pope about the Council Cardinals Pacificators sent from the Pope to the Emperor and French King. The Emperor's Answer to the Cardinal Pacificators The Country of Juliers wasted by the Imperialists and Duren taken A war betwixt the English and Scots The King of Scots dies The Protestants decline the Imperial Chamber The Duke of Cleve retakes Duren A Sedition at Rochell The French King's Speech to the Seditious Rochellers 1543. The Diet of Nurimberg The Ambassadors of the Netherlands accuse the Duke of Cleve at Nurimberg Granvell's Speech in the Emperor's name at Nurimberg The Protestants Petition The Decree of the Diet of Nurimberg The Protestants oppose this Decree Pacification attempted betwixt the Emperor and the Duke of Cleve A Battle at Zittard The Dukes of Bavaria intercede for the Duke of Brunswick The Bisop of Ausburg dies The French Kings Answer to the Emperor's Letter The Death of Bellay of Langey and his Encomium Landre makes a publick Recantation of all that he had taught and confessed his Error And so does de Pensier Clement Marot The Archbishop of Cologne's Reformation of the Church Bucer Preaches at Bonn. Melancthon Pistorius come to Cologne The Clergy of Cologne oppose the Reformation The Antididagma of the Clergy of Cologne The Divines of Cologne oppose Bucer who is defended by Melancthon The Laws of Duke Maurice of Saxony He founds three publick Schools A Law against those who deflower Virgins Against Adulterers The Emperor's Letters to the Protestants An Interview betwixt the Pope and Emperor Petro Aloisio obtained the Possession of Parma and Piacenza which the Emperor refused to confirm The Emperor delivers up to Cosmo of Medicis the Castles of Florence and Legborn The Marriage of Philip King of Spain The Marriage of the King of Poland An Assembly of the Protestants at Smalcald A League betwixt the Emperor King of England The Protestant Ambassadors to the Emperor at Spire The Emperor's Answer to the Protestant Ambassadors The Electors of Cologne and Saxony mediate for the Duke of Cleve but in vain The Heildesheimers accused to the Emperor The Emperor's threatening Letter to those of Heildesheim His Letter to the Senate of Cologne The Pope's Letter to them also The Turkish Fleet in Provence The Castle of Nizza Besieged The Turks Invade Hungary Calvin's Antidote and Book of Relicks The Emperor comes to Bonne where Bucer and Hedie preached The Emperors Expedition against Cleve and his Victory A vain report of the Emperor's being drowned The Emperor takes Liege and Ruremund by Surrender The Duke of Cleve upon Submission is Reconciled to the Emperor The Conditions of his Peace The French King takes Luxenburg again Landrecy Besieged The Emperors Envoy to the City of Metz. Divisions in Scotland The Queen of Scots betroth'd to Prince Edward of England The Danes make War against the Imperialists The Duke of Cleve renounces his League with France and demands his Wife The French Flight at Landrecy The Protestants assemble at Franckfort The Elector of Saxony and Lantgrave write to the Emperor His Answer to them 1544. Extraordinary Eclipses of the Sun Moon Alexander Farnese sent Legate to the Emperor The Diet at Spire very full The Emperor's Speech at the opening of it The Protestants Plea about the Affair of Brunswick Brunswick's Accusation of the Protestants A French Ambassy to the Diet of Spire The French Herald ill received at Spire The Letter of some Princes to the Pope The Pope's Answer Ludovick Elector Palatine dies his Brother Frederick succeeds The Letter of the States of the Empire to the Swisse The Protestants Accuse the Duke of Brunswick A pleasant Story of the Duke of Brunswick and his Miss Eve Trottine The French Victory at Carignan The Proceedings of the Duke of Saxony and the Confederates with the Duke of Brunswick The Duke of Savoy's Accusation of the French King. The Switzers Answer to the Letter of the States of the Empire An English Expedition against Scotland and Edinborough taken Wolfgang made Master of Prussia The complaint and desire of the Ambassadors of Hungary The Speech of the French Ambassadors that was not heard in the Diet. An Accommodation betwixt the Emperor Ferdinand and the Duke of Saxony Ferdinand is acknowledged for King of the Romans Eleanor the Daughter of King Ferdinand betrothed to the Duke of Saxony's Son. The King of Denmark's Accommodation with the Emperor The Decree of the States for a Subsidy against the French and other Matters The Decree of Spire displeases the Catholicks The Cities and two Princes refused to give Aid against the French. The Dutchy of Brunswick Sequestrated into the Emperor's Hands The Emperors Expedition into France Count Bichling was condemned to die but saved by
Maximilian Barbarossa's Incursions Anthony Duke of Lorrain dying his Son Francis succeeds to him The English make an Expedition into France Boloigne besieged Sandizier taken upon Surrender Renate Prince of Orange killed The Consternation of the Parisians Boloigne taken by the English The Peace betwixt the Emperor and French King at Soissons and the Conditions of it The Pope's Letters to the Emperour written at the instigation and upon the confidence of the French King. The Bishop of Winchester's Book against Bucer Cardinals created to gratifie Princes The Council is again called The Controversie about the Lords Supper is renewed The Plea of the Clergy of Cologne with the Archbish The Clergy of Cologne appeal to the Pope and Emperour George of Brunswick President The writing of the Archb against the Conspiracy of his Clergy The Clergy of Cologne subscribe the Appeal The Emperour's Embassie to the King of England The Netherlanders loveâ— of the Reformed Religion Peter Bruley burnt The Intercession of Strasbourg and the Protestants for Bruley The Emperour 's severe Edicts against the Lutherans Bruiey's Answer to the Monks Interrogatories Of the Body and Bloud of Christ Of the Mass Of the Adoration of the Bread. Of Purgatory Of Masses and Prayers for the Dead How the Saints are truly worshipp'd Of Free-will Of Faith. Of Traditions that enslave Minds Of Images Of Baptism Of Vows Of Confession Of the Virginity of the Blessed Mary The Assembly of the Divines of Paris at Melun Luther's Positions contrary to those of the Divines of Louvaine An Imperial Diet at Wormes The first Session The Protestants make answer to Ferdinand The deliberation of the Popish States King Ferdinand and the Emperor's Deputies Answer to the Protestants The Protestants Petition Grignian the the French Embassador to the States The Persecution of the Waldenses at Merindole A cruel Sentence of the Parliament of Aix against the Waldenses Meinier President of the Parliament of Aix Philip Cortine Forces raised by Meinier against the Waldenses A Soldier gives the Fugitives forewarning Merindole is burnt Cabriere surprised by craft Is demolished A honourable piece of Cruelty of Meinier The number of the slain Coste is taken and the Inhabitants most barbarously used The Intercession of the Swizers for the Merindâ—lanes The King's Answer to the Swiss The Heads of the Waldensian Doctrine The Spaniards marched through Germany into Austria The Death of Louis Duke of Bavaria The Emperour and Cardinal Farnese come to Wormes The Emperour's Embassie to the King of Poland The King of Poland's Answer to the Emperour The Pope very greedy of Lutheran blood A bloody Sermon of a Franciscan Fryer Cardinal Farnese parts from Wormes for Rome Luther's Book against the Papacy of Rome A Picture set before the Book Luther's Theses of the three Hierarchies The Emperour's Treaty with the Protestants The Plea of Grignian the French Embassadour Francis Duke of Lorrain dies King Ferdinand's Daughter dies The Birth of Charles the Son of Philip King of Spain The Emperour's Daughter-in-law dies Piscara comes to Wormes The Duke of Brunswick chouses the French King of Money The Emperour makes a Truce with the Turk The Senate of Metz inquire after Protestants The Archbishop of Cologne is cited by the Emperour and Pope The Emperour takes the Clergy and Colledge of Cologne into his protection The Archbishop of Cologne is cited The Pope's prejudice against the Archbishop An Assembly and Conference appointed at Ratisbonne Conferours are appointed for the pacification of Religion The Papists refuse the Conference The Dutchy of Brunswick adjudged to the Emperour The stubbornness of the Duke of Brunswick The Elector of Cologne sends a Proctor to the Emperour War betwixt the French and English at Bologne The Death of the Duke of Orleans The Duke of Brunswick takes the field He takes Stembruck The Landgrave's Expedition against the Duke of Brunswick Maurice interceeds for Peace The Conditions of Peace proposed A Truce granted Duke Henry breaks the Truce A Fight betwixt Brunswick and the Landgrave The Duke of Brunswick surrenders himself with his Son to the Landgrave The Death of Albert of Mentz Maurice purges himself of the suspicion of betrying Brunswick Luther's Book against the setting the Duke of Brunswick at liberty William of Furstenberg is set at liberty The Duke of Saxony and Landgrave's Letters to the Emperour about the taking of the D. of Branswick The Landgrave's Letter to the Emperour The Emperour's Answer to the Landgrave by an Embassadour The Landgrave's Answer A Treaty of Peace betwixt the Kings of France and England 1546. The King of England forewarns the Protestants of their danger A Meeting of the Protestants at Franckfurt The Elector Palatine appoints Preachers of the Gospel A Meeting of the Electors of the Rhine for the Archbishop of Cologne A Report of a War against the Protestants The Landgrave's Letter to Granvell Granvell answers the Landgrave A Meeting of some Princes at Franckfurt Sebastian Scherteline Deputies from the Protestants are sent to the Emperour and Clergy of Cologne The Protestants accused of a Conspiracy The Conference of Naves and Renard Count of Solmes The Landgrave's Letters to Naves The Conference of learned Men at Ratisbonne Presidents Colloqutors and Witnesses of the Conference The Conference begins The Heads of Doctrine to be chiefly handled The Conditions of the Conference Malvenda treats of the Point of Justification Bucer answers Malvenda as to the Article of Justification Billick the Carmelite Malvenda answers Bucer The Emperour's Letter to the Doctors Pflugg admitted amongst the Presidents The Conference is broken up The Protestant Embassadours with the Emperour in favour of the Elector of Cologne The Emperour's Answer to them The Pope's Legates sent to Trent Mendoza's Speech to the Fathers in Name of the Emperour The Cardinals answer Mendoza Preaching Monks acted the first part in the Council A Bull of Indulgences The commencement of the Council The first Session The Decree of the first Session The second Session of the Council of Trent Luther chosen Umpire betwixt the Counts of Mansfield Whether we shall know one another in the life to come Luther's Prayer before his death Luther's death His dead Body is carried to Wittemberg The Birth and Life of Luther He was sent to Rome Luther's Eloquence in the German Language His Constancy and Courage The Authors of the Decree of Ausbourg John Diazi went to the Conference at Ratisbonne John Diazi's Conference with Malvenda Malvenda's Letter to the Emperour's Confessour Diazi goes to Newbourg Alfonso Diazi's Brother comes into Germany The Cain-like and traitorous Mind of Alfonso John Diazi is killed by his Brother's means What was done with the Ruffians at Inspruck The Emperour comes to Spire on his Journey to Ratisbonne He visits the D. of Deuxpont's Lady Daughter to the Landgrave The Landgrave comes to the Emperour The Landgrave's Speech to the Emperour The Emperour's Answer to the Landgrave The Landgrave's words to the Emperour Monks the disturbers of the Peace The Emperour's Answer to the
Letter to Duke Maurice's Son-in-Law The Letter of the Council of War to Duke Maurice The Protestants Letters from the Camp to some Imperial Cities and Princes The Bohemians invade Saxony unwillingly Hussars Hungarian Horse Ferdinand's General denounceth War against the Saxons A Convention of the Confederate Deputies at Vlm. The Duke of Saxony's Demands from the Protestants The Answer of the Deputies Duke Maurice his Letters to the Elector His Letters also to the same purpose to the Elector's Son. An Irruption into the Province of the Elector of Saxony The Bohemians depart The Hungarians joyn Duke Maurice Most of the Towns of Saxony fall into the hands of Duke Maurice The Emperour removes his Camp. Duke Maurice ill spoken of Pasquils against Duke Maurice Duke Maurice justifies himself by a publick Manifesto The Persecution of Meaux in France William Briâ—sonet Fourteen burnt The Archbishop of Cologne appeals to a Council An Embassie into France and England The Duke of Saxony and Landgrave in great danger Bophinghen Nordlingen Oetinghen and Dinkespiel surrender to the Emperour The Duke of Saxony raises Money of the Papists The Landgrave's Letter to Duke Maurice his Son-in-law The Emperour's Letter to the Duke of Wirtemberg The Emperour commands the Duke of Wirtemberg to deliver up himself and all his into his hands And his Subjects not to obey him Wirtemberg's supplicatory Letters to the Emperour Neopolitan Cuirossiers come to the Emperour Frederick Elector Palatine is reconciled to the Emperour Paulus Fagius called to Heidleberg The City of Vlm reconciled to the Emperour The Landgrave's Country harassed by the Imperialists Buren takes Darmstadt Frankfurt surrenders to Buren His free Jest that he put upon them The cause of the surrender Frankfurt is reconciled to the Emperour and is fined The Elector of Saxony's Letter to the States of Duke Maurice The King of Denmark sent no aid to the Protestants The Duke of Alva invades the Dutchy of Wirtemberg 1547. The Conditions upon which the Duke of Wirtemberg is reconciled to the Emperor The Emperor's Answer to the Embassadors of Wirtemberg The Protestant Cities of Memmingen Bibrach Ravensburg Kempen and Isne are reconciled to the Emperor Memmingen fined A Sedition in Genoa against the Family of Doria. Joannin Doria killed A Decree of the Council of Trent concerning Justification The Siege of Leipsick The Duke of Saxony recovers his own and takes Duke Maurice's Towns. The Bohemians refuse to take Arms against the Duke of Saxony King Ferdinand's Answer to the Bohemians Demands Marquess Albert of Brandenburg is sent with assistance to Duke Maurice The Emperour goes to Vlm. Lindaw and Esling are received into his Favour Adolph Count Schavenburg is put in the place of Herman Archbishop of Cologne The Emperour's Embassadors perswade the States to relinquish Herman and accept of Schavenburg for their Archbishop The Duke of Cleve mediates and gets Herman to divest himself of his Bishoprick Herman resigns the Bishoprick of Cologne Frederick Herman's Brother turned out of the Provostship of Bonne which was given to Gropper The Death of Henry King of England to whom his Son Prince Edward succeeds Severity against Norfolk Henry detested the Pope not his Doctrine Henry left Guardians to his Son. Thomas Cranmer Primate of England They of Ausbourg capitulate with the Emperour Scheterline odious to the Emperour The Elector of Brandenburg Interposes for Peace and with the Landgrave too The Emperour raises new Forces against Saxony Joyce Grunning compels Count Deckelburg the town of Minden and others to obey and take Orders from him Saxony's Letters to those of Strasbourg Mendoza the French Embassador to Strasbourg The City of Strasbourg send an Embassie to the Emperour Naves dies George Selden succeeds John Marquard Henry Hasen King Ferdinand's Demands to the Bohemians The Nobility and Citizens of Prague desire a Convention of States to be called The League of the Bohemians Rochliez kept out by Marquess Albert. The Duke of Saxony takes Rochiltz by Storm and carries off the Enemies Ordnance Marquess Albert made Prisoner Wolf Theodorick dies of his Wounds The Duke of Wirtemberg makes his Submission to the Emperor The Seventh Session of the Council of Trent concerning the Sacraments And also concerning Ecclesiastical Benefices King Ferdinand's Letters to the Bohemians Strasburg's Pacification with the Emperour Their Fine The Conditions proposed to the Landgrave The Landgrave rejects them The Emperour's Letters to the States of Duke Maurice As also to those of Prague Caspar Pflug Head of the Bohemian Confederates The Bohemians Letters to King Ferdinand and Duke Maurice Ferdinand answers the Bohemians Saxony's Embassador to the Bohemians The Bohemians Letter to the Moravians Francis the French King dies to whom Henry succeeds A change of Affairs in the French Court. Francis the Mecenas of Scholars His Learning A famous Library His liberality towards the Duke of Saxony and Landgrave The death of the Kings of England and France advantageous to the Emperour The overthrow of an Imperial Army Grunning dies Bremen besieged The Bohemians Letter to King Ferdinand The Emperors Letter to the States of Bohemia The Bohemians prepare for War against King Ferdinand's Forces King Ferdinand writes to his Bohemians Saxony takes some Towns from Duke Maurice Some of the Fathers of the Council of Trent go to Bohemia The Count of Buren holds Francfurt Two men put to death at Franckfurt The Landgrave's Justification The Bohemians friends to the Duke of Saxony King Ferdinand's Commissioners to the Convention of the Bohemians Ferdinand's Army The Emperor's Expedition against the Duke of Saxony The Emperours celerity in overtaking the Saxons The Elector of Saxony made Prisoner Duke Ernest of Brunswick taken A Prodigy of the Sun. King Ferdinand's Commissioners to the Bohemians and their Deputies to him The Duke of Saxony condemned to death by the Emperour The great fortitude of Saxony Brandenburg's intercession for Saxony The Conditions proposed by the Emperour to Saxony Albert of Brandenburg and Ernest of Brunswick set at liberty Who were excluded out of the Peace A Diet of the Empire at Ulm. King Ferdinand's Letter to the Bohemians The Duke of Saxony discharges the Soldiers in Wittemberg of their Military Oath and then they surrender the Place to the Emperour The Dutchess of Saxony makes intercession to the Emperour for her Husband The Funeral of King Francis Duke Erick of Brunswick defeated The Intercession of Duke Maurice and the Elector of Brandenburg for the Landgrave Christopher Eblben Duke Maurice's Letter to the Landgrave The Articles of Peace The Landgrave accepts the Conditions Wittemberg falls to Duke Maurice Lazarus Schuendi razes Gothen King Ferdinand's Letter to the Bohemians What was done at the Diet of Vlm. This Diet is adjourned to Ausbourg The Landgrave comes to the Emperour at Hall. A Draught of the Articles of Peace presented to the Landgrave different from that which he had received The Landgrave signes the Articles of Peace The Landgrave begs Pardon of the Emperour The Emperour's Answer to the Landgrave by the
mouth of his Chancellor The Landgrave rises from off his knees unbidden The Landgrave's Captivity The Remonstrance of Duke Maurice and Brandenburg's Counsellors to the Emperour The number of great Guns taken from the Protestants Ebleben dies for grief The City of Magdeburg alone did not satisfie the Emperour Sebastian Vogelsberg raising Men in Germany King Ferdinand calls before him the Citizens of Prague in the Castle of Prague and there severely expostulates with them The Bohemians subdued and fined by King Ferdinand Caspar Pflug condemned of High-treason A Sedition at Naples because of the Spanish Inquisition The Reason of the first Institution of the Spanish Inquisition The Pope's Legat in France grants many things Charles of Guise made Cardinal The Pope and King of France make a Match between their Bastards A Diet at Ausburg Some Towns of Saxony are reconciled to the Emperor The Emperour publishes his Pacification with the Landgrave Duke Maurice graciously receives the Divines of Wittemberg The manner of the French King's Coronation Twelve Peers of France The Emperour squeezes Money from the States of the Empire The Sum of Money which the Emperour got Counts whom the Emperour would not pardon Magdenburg proscribed King Ferdinand and the Cardinal of Ausburg obtain vast Sums of Money from the Free Towns. The Emperour sollicits the Suitzers into a League An Armed Diet at Ausburg A Truce between the Emperour and Turk The Expiation of Churches Michael Sidonius a Champion for the Mass The Opening of the Diet at Ausburg Pietro Aloisio the Pope's Son is assassinated at Piacenza Jerome Palavicini turned out of House and Lands Pope Paul III. an Astrologer and Necromancer Those of Piacenza submit to the Emperour The detestable wickedness of Aloisio the Pope's Bastard The Council of Trent divided The German Bishops Letter to the Pope A Victory of the English over the Scots The Opinions of the Catholicks and Protestants differ about the Council of Trent The Protestants are sollicited to submit to the Council Some Protestants drawn in or over-awed assent to the Council The Free Towns scrupulous to assent to the Council The Emperour's Answer to the Speech of the low Towns. The Emperour's Embassie to the Pope for the continuation of the Council Letters to the States in behalf of the Landgrave The Emperour's Excuse to the States concerning the Captivity of the Landgrave The States acquaint Maurice and Brandenburg with the Emperour's Relation The Emperour is not wrought upon by Intercessions De Lire sent to the Landgrave desires up all Obligatory Letters that he had Peter Martyr goes into England The Reformation of the Church in England The Cardinal of Trent's Speech to the Pope in the Consistory of Cardinals The Speech of the Emperour's Embassador to the Pope The Cardinal of Lorrain's Harangue to the Pope The French King hunts after a fit occasion The Pope's Answer to the Cardinal of Trent and Mendoza The Pope's Letter to his Legate in the Council The Legat's Answer to the Pope The Pope's Answer to the Emperour's Embassadour Mendoza sends the Pope's Answer to the Emperour 1548. The Pope's Answer to the Bishops of Germany The Emperour's Embassadours sent to Bolonia The Pope's Legate to the Emperour's Embassadour De Vargas the Emperour's Embassadour his Speech to the Fathers The sawciness of the Cardinal de Monte. The form of the Protestation against the Council The King of Polands Embassy in behalf of Albert of Brandenburg The Harangue of the Polish Ambassador in the Diet of Ausburg The Institution of the Teutonick Order Casimire King of Poland subdues the Teutonicks Albert of Brandenburg refuses to do Homage to the King of Poland Albert makes Peace with the King of Poland The Master of Prussia's Answer to the Speech of the Polish Ambassador The Original of the Tuetenick Order Conrade Duke of Muscovy afflicted by the Prussians Prussia converted to the Christian Religion A Pacification betwixt the King of Poland and Matter of Prussia The King of Poland takes 70 Towns from the Master of Prussia The Articles of the Peace betwixt Casimire King of Poland and the Master of Prussia How long Prussia continued under the Empire The death of Sigismund King of Poland The Popes haughty Speech to the Emperours Ambassador The Pope taxes Mendoza as having transgressed his Commission The Popes Expressions concerning his perpetual resolution of calling a Council His comparing himself with the Emperour The singular purpose of the Pope The Emperour's Report to the States The Interim is made Bucer being sent for by the Elector of Brandenburg comes to Ausburg The English Declaration to the Scots Sebastian Vogelsberg is condemned to die and two Captains with him A Persecution in France The Ceâ—emony of Investing Duke Mâ—â—rice into the Electorship Bucer rejects the Interim Brandenburg angry with Bucer The Archbiship of Cologne's first Mass The King of Tâ—nis comes to Ausburg The Heads of the Book called the Interim The Interim often reviewed and corrected before it could pass The Interim sent to Rome The Popes Animadversions upon it The Elector's opinions about the Interim vary The Archbishop of Mentzs his craft in approving the Interim and giving thanks to the Empeâ—â—â— The Emperour desires Money to be raised and put into a publick Treasury King Ferdinand craves Money from the States Maximilian marries his own Cousin german The Naapolitan Horse are a great burden to the people about Strasburg Marquess John of Brandenburg approves not the Interim The Electors of Brandenburg and Palatine receive the Interim The constancy of the Duke of Deux-Ponts Musculus went from Ausburg to Bern. The labours and dangers of Brentius Brentius his Judgment of the Interim The ingratitude of the People of Hall who banish Brentius and his Family The Duke of Wirtemberg secretly received Brentius The Preachers are forced to fly Wirtemberg receives the Interim The constancy of Saxony the Prisoner Severity towards captive Saxony Letters spread abroad in the Landgrave's Name Whil'st the Mass triumphs in Germany it is run down in England The Bishop of Winchester is committed to Prison The Emperours Ecclesiastical Reformation The Bishops approve this Regulation Those of Strasburg are urged to receive the Interim The Answer of those of Strasburg Granvell's Speech to the Strasburghers The Strasburghâ—â—s Answer to Granvell Granvell's Reply The Strasburghers insist The other Cities are also urged The Emperours Answer to the States about the disbanding of the Soldiers The States consent to the Constitution of the Imperial Chamber A Decree of the Dyet of Ausburg concerning a free Council The Composers of the Interim are bountifully rewarded The Emperours Letters to the Princes about the receiving of the Interim The Veneratians Proclamation The Popes Legats in the Courts of Princes The prudence of the Venetians in the business of Religion The Venetian Inquisition against Sorcerers and those that have commerce with the Devil French Auxiliaries sent to the Scots They who served in the Protestant Arms Proscribed by the Emperour The Duke of Vendâ—smâ—s Marriage The
suspicion of Lutheranism disappointed of the Popedom The year of Jubily The Golden-Gate The institution of the Jubily by Boniface VIII Reduced to 50 years And then to 25. The Jubily in the year 1550 earnestly desired by Paul III. But he was disappointed The Death of Paulus Fagius Mass again said at Strasburg 1550 The sight of Mass strange at first A tumult in the Cathedral of Strasburg The Preacher leaves the Pulpit and shifts for himself Saying of Mass interrupted The Priests glad of it A treaty of Peace between the English and French. The Protector of England delivered out of Prison Factions at Rome about chusing a Pope John Maria de Monte is made Pope De Monte changing his name is called Julius III. The French Kings Edict The number of Cardinals Julius inaugurated The opening of the golden gate A Joke upon the Cardinal of Ausburg Ambassadours sent to complement the Pope Parma restored to Octavio The most obscene Letter of Camillo Oliva out of the Conclave The Emperours Letter to the States of the Empire wherein he appoints a Dyet Peace betwixt the English and French. Boloigne restored to the French. Another Manifesto of the Magdeburgers The confession oâ— Faith of the Ministers of Magdeburg The Bishop of Strasburg complains to the Emperour of the City Mass again begun there The Emperour and his Son come to Ausburg The Emperours Edict against the Lutherans in the Netherlands The Reward of Informers Many astonished at the Emperours Edict especially those of Antwerp The 〈◊〉 against the 〈◊〉 The power of the Inquisitors The Questions in the Emperours Edict against the Lutherans The Cardinal of Lorrain the Companion of King Francis dies By whom Metz betrayed Adolph Archbishop of Cologne makes his entry into that City The Duke of Cleve has a Daughter born Duke Maurice his Protestation against the Council The Elector of Mentz Chancellor of the Empire The Cardinal of Ausburgs Sermon against the Lutherans Some Spaniards interrupt Divine Service The death of Granvell The Bishop of Arras in great power with the Emperour Brunswick besieged Dragut a notable Pirate Tripoly taken by the Imperialists The occasion of a Turkish War. At the Emperour's Command Duke Henry and the Senate of Brunswick lay down their Arms. Their Forces were by the Duke of Meckleburg turn'd against the Magdeburgers The death of John Albert Archbishop of Magdeburg Gâ—â—â—ge Duke of Meckleburg wasts the Country of Magdeburg The Magdeburgers engage the Duke of Meckleburg And are overthrown The Emperour complains of the Magdeburgers and Bremers The Princes write to the Magdeburgers and Bremeâ—s A Woman of Ausburg in great danger for a rash word The Edict about Religion in the Netherlands moderated at the intercession of the Emperour's Sister The Conditions proposed to the Bremers And to the Magdeburgâ—rs The third Declaration and undaunted Courage of the Magdeburgers Forces against the Magdeburgers A fight at Magdeburg The besieged make a sally out A Cessation of Arms. A Deputation sent to the Emperour against Magdeburg The Bremers Letter to the Princes at Ausburg The Answer of the Magdeburgers The death of Vlrick Duke of Wirtemberg A cruel Decree against the Mâ—gdeburgers Duke Mauric General of the War against Magdebâ—rg Which the Emperour is earnest should be prosecuted The Emperour desires to know the Reasons why the Interim was not observed The Causes why the Decree was not observed The Answer of the Deputies and Catholick Princes to these things Pope Julius his Bull for calling the Council Duke Maurice attacks the Magdeburgers Mansfield and Heideck defeated by Duke Maurice The Emperour's Edict against the Magdeburgers The Landgrave's Sons sue in behalf of their Father Lazarus Schuendi sent by the Emperour to the Landgrave's Sons c. The Landgrave thinks of making his escape But the design is discovered The Emperours Letters to Duke Maurice and Brandeburg concerning the Landgrave's flight Duke Maurice comforts the Landgrave's Sons promising his utmost endeavours The Magdebâ—rgers sally out and get the Victory The Duke of Meckleburg taken Maximilian's return into Germany The Emperour and King Ferdinand's emulation for the Empire Maximilian beloved of all Pope Julius his Bull offended many The Magdebâ—rgers are solicited to surrender The Declaration of the Clergy of Magdebâ—â—g against the Senate The actions of the Inhabitants of Magdeburg against the Clergy The value of the damage received The Magdeburgâ—s answer to the Accusations of the Clergy 1551 King Ferdinand complains of the Turks breach of Truce The Bishop of Winchester turned out of his Bishoprick and committed to prison again Osiander's new Opinion about Justification Condemned by the other Divines Albert Duke of Prussia sides with Osiander Joachim Merlin and some others are banished for Osiander's Doctrine Osiander falls foul upon the Divines of Wittemberg and Melanchton Another of his Opinions The Decree of the Dyet of Ausburg A meeting of the Princes at Norimberg Supplies decreed to King Ferdinand against the Turk The Emperours Edict against those that should assist the Magdeburgers Octavio Farnese in protection of the King of France puts a French Garison into Parma Sentence pronounced against the Landgrave Bucer dies The complaint of the Bishop of Strasburg against the Preachers Prodigies in Saxony The Popes Brief against Octavio Farnese Octavio cited to Rome The Council meets again at Trent Heideck a Friend to the Magdeburgers Farnese being conâ—umacious undertakes the defence of Parma The Emperours Declaration against Octavio The War of Parma betwixt the Emperour and French. The Popes Brief to the Switzers wherein he desires them to send their Bishops to the Council Prince Philip returns to Spain The French Kings Apology to the Pope Parma of the Patrimony of the Church Conditions of Peace proposed to the Magdeburgers The Empeâ—our calls the States to Trent Duke Maurice his Confession drawn up by Melanchton The Confession of Wirtemberg Brentius is by the Duke of Wirtemberg restored to the Ministery in the Church A Mâ—tiny in Magdeburg Duke Maurice his Letter to the Emperour The Decree of the Council of Constance The safe Conduct that the Bohemians had when they came to the Council of Basil The Ministers of Ausburg questioned about their Doctrine The Answer and Constancy of the Ministers The Ministers of Ausburg banished Preaching prohibited The liberality of the Captive Duke of Saxony towards banished Ministers The Reasons why they were served so Henry King of France makes War against the Emperour Cherie and St. Damian taken The Reasons why the French King made War against the Emperour The Turk takes Tripoly Contrary Narratives from the Emperour and King of France The Restauration of the Council of Trent Wherein Cardinal Crescentio presides The French King Letter to the Council And a Debate amongst the Fathers about the Superscription of it The Speech of the French Ambassadour The French Kings Protestation against the Council of Trent Expectative Graces The payment of Annats discharged Pragmatick Sanction The Advice of the Parliament of Paris not to abrogate
Beheaded The Deaths of the Duke and Duchess of Saxony The differences between him and Augustus The Strangers leave England The Princess Elizab. committed to the Tower. The Siege of Siena Sir Tho. Wiat executed A Parliament The Diet of Germany The Norimbergerr Answer to Albert. Albert goes into Saxony The Duke of Savoy dies The Edict of King Ferdinand concerning Religion Papal Queries The French War iâ— the Low-Countries In Italy Prince Philip arrives in England Naples Resigned The Diet of ankfurt The French King's Letter to this Diet. Milan resigned to King Philip A Parliament in England †The Attainder was reversed the 22th of November England reconciled to the See of Rome The Emperor's Letter to the States of Germany Ferdinand comes to Ausburg 1555. The Parliament of England dissolved Five burnt in England The Diet opened in Germany A National Council of Germany long disused The Effect of this Speech April 10. 1556. England submits to the Court of Rome 1556. †Atrocia Blasseburg ruined Ferdinand invites the Princes to the Diet. The Protestâ—ne Ministers Comfort the banished Bohemians The French War in Piâ—dmont The Electors of Saxony and Brandenburg and other Princes League together The Letter of these Princes to the Emperor The Elector of Mentz dies Julius III. dies Siena taken by the Emperor's Forces Marceilus II. dies Paul the IV. Elected Cardinal Pool's Letter for a Peace †In 1521. * In 1522. Queen Mary mediates between the Emperor and King of France The Letter of the German Princes to the Emperor His Answer The Persecution in England An Insurrection in Geneva The Turks Fleet. Porto Ercole taken Catzenellobâ—gen The English Ambassadors Return from Rome The Danish Navy †1549. Latimer and Ridley burnt at Oxford †I suppose our Author was mis-informed as to this Particular The Parliament of Paris Answer to the King's Edict Caâ—zenellobogen The Low Countries resigned by the Emperor to King Philip. The Diet of Germany †In 1548. The Allegations of the Roman-Catholicks A Virulent Paper put in by the Roman-Catholicks against the Protestants Liberty of Conscience contrary to Catholick Religion The Protestants Answer Rom. 1. The Answer of King Ferdinand The form of the Recess prâ—posed Ferdinand's Answer to the Papers The Protestants Reply Ferdinand's Answer to the Protestants The Decree then made A Parliament begun the 21st of October in England The Pope requires the restitution of Abby-Lands Bishop Gardiner Dies †A suppression of his Urin. A Duke of Venice deposed King Philip and Ferdinand send Ambassadors to the Princes of Germany King Philip entereth upon the Government of the Netherlands The Address of the States of the Lower Austria for Liberty of Conscience King Ferdinand's Answer The States of the Lower Austria reply English affairs †The 12th of September Cranmer Burnt The Subjects of Bavaria petition for Liberty of Conscience Transylvania revolts The Cardinal of Ausburg's Apology for himself The Marquess of Baden embraceth the Augustan Confession Peter Martyr goes to Zurich * The cause by them alledged was That Ferdinand contrary to his promise had put Spanish Souldiers into their Towns which ruin'd their Country Thuan. †The Inhabitants and Garrison finding the Castle too little to be defended made a sudden Sally and recovered the Town the 23d of July the Turks were forced with great loss and shame to draw off * Which was then said to be much debased and corrupted to the damage of the People †These short Accounts seem added by another hand after the Author was dead if not that of the Emperour's Journey The Introduction The Revolt of Transylvania Sigeth besieged and most bravely defended by the Germans The Situation of Sigeth Babotz besieged The Character of Haly the Turks General Gran surprized by Scalado Charles V resigns the Netherlands and Spain to his Son. And the Empire to his Brother Ferdinand The Emperour's Ambassadours to the Electoral Princes The Emperour sets sail for Spain His Speech at his landing The description of the Place in which he lived Thuanus John Sleidan's Death and Character Natura iracundus pene implacabilis Natalis Comes Paul IV a furious Hare-brained Prince He annexes the Kingdom of Naples to the See of Rome The Duke de Alva begins a a War upon the Papacy Anagni taken Rome prepared for a Siege The Seige of Ostia 1557. The French Affairs Valenza taken Ostia retaken by the Pope The War in Italy under the Duke of Guise The Duke de Alva takes the Field Segni taken by the Spaniards The Duke of Guise recall'd A Peace between King Philip and the Pope * Caviiâ— The Affairs of England Ferrara rescued from Ruine by the Duke of Florence The Dyet of Ratisbonne A Remonstrance of the Protestant Princes Albert Marquis of Brandenburg dies The County of Catzenellobogen setled by Agreement The Conference at Wormes The War between France and Spain Queen Mary joyns with Spain The Siege of St. Quintin The Battel of St. Quintin Montmorancy ruin'd by being taken Prisoner The Day of the Battel St. Quintin taken by Storm A Letter of Charles V to his Son Philip. The French Army grows great A Persecution in France The misrepresentations of the Roman Catholicks against the Protestants The Siege of Calais 1558. The Site of Calais Guines taken A Turkish Fleet land in several Places of Italy and carry many into Slavery The Dauphine married to Mary Queen of Scotland The first Proposals of a Peace between France and King Philip. Andelot Marshal of France ruined by the Arts of the Guises Thionville besieged and taken The Defeat of Thermes near Graveling Dunkirk surprized And Vinoxberg The English Fleet unsuccessful The Treaty of Cambray began The Parliament of England meet and Queen Mary dies The German Affairs * That is the Ecclesiastical and Civil Government The Death and Character of Charles the Fifth His Opinion concerning Justification Queen Elizabeth succeeds The Scotch Affairs Scotland begins to entertain the Reformation 1559. The Death of Frederick I King of Denmark Christian II King of Denmark dies Frederick II conquereth Dieâ—marsh The Affairs of Italy New Bishopricks erected in the Low-Countries King Philip desirous of a Peace with France that he might be at leisure to extirpate Heresie That Design discover'd to the Prince of Orange The Dyet of Germany Conditions proposed by the Protestants for a Council The Emperor Confirms the Peace of Passaw The French Embassadors come to the Dyet The Life and Death of David George a famous Impostor The Treaty of Cambray produces a Peace at last The Peace occasions a Persecution in France The King goes to the Parliament of Paris to aw it into a Compliance Yet some retained their Freedom at the Price of their Lives The King's Answer A French Synod held by the Protestant Ministers The Protestant Princes of Germany write to the King of France A Commission issued to try the suspected Members of Parliament Du Bourg first tried The sad Condition of France during the Persecution Henry
' Arche and Caudebec Diepe Caen and Bayeux Man 's taken by them The Triumvirate desire no liberty should be granted to the Protestants The Triumvirate draw out of Paris The Prince of Conde maintain great Order in his Army at first A second Treaty between the Queen and Conde Boigency sack'd Bâ—ois Tours Anger 's taken by the Protestants Tours retaken by the Roman Catholicks Mans deserted by the Protestants Amiens Senlis Normandy The Roman Catholicks retake Poictiers and Bourges The Siege of Roan resolved on The Terms of the Protestants League with England The King of Navar shot at the Siege of Roan He dyes 〈◊〉 surrender'd to the King. And also Caen. Diep retaken by the Protestants The Protestants beaten in Guienne Andelot hardly obtains Succours in Germany The Prince of Conde takes the Field Pluviers taken by the Prince of Conde Corbeil besieged by the Prince of Conde The two Armies come in view of each other A Treaty with the Queen and the Terms proposed by the Prince of Conde The Prince marcheth towards Normandy to meet the English Succours * Ablium The King's Army overtake the Prince The Battel of Dreux Montmorancy taken Prisoner St. Andre by the advice of the Duke of 〈◊〉 turn the Fortune of the day and gains the Victory on the King 's â—â—de The Prince of Conde taken 〈…〉 slain 〈◊〉 Coligni The Duke of 〈◊〉 force 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 Coligni would have â—ought the next day Coligni General of the Protestants 1563. The Pope fondly overjoyed with the Victory at Dreux The Prince of Conde carried to Blois The Siege of Orleans The Duke of Guise wounded by one Poltrot The Death and Character of the Duke of Guise The Queen earnestly desires a Peace The Treaty of Peace between the Prince of Conde and Montmorancy The Articles agreed on Coligni not pleased with the Peace The Cardinal of Ferrara leaves France The Causes of the Delay of the Council The Pope's Legates sent to Trent * Proponentibus Legatis The Prohibition of Books taken into consideration A debate whether Episcopacy and Residence are of Divine Right The French Ambassadors Arrival The Demands of the French Ambassadors in the Council The French Kings Reflections on the Proceedings of the Council The Cardinal of Lorrain and the French Clergy arrive at Trent The Pope allarm'd at it as if so many Enemies had invaded him The Popes fears of the French Bishops never to be stopp'd Maximilian Son of Ferdinand chosen King of the Romans Polano in his History of the Council of Trent saith the Election was made the 24 th of November So that the first date seems to be the day of the opening of the Diet. The Emperor dislikes the Proceedings of the Council The Ambassador of Spain received in the Council The Fathers at Trent much dissatisfied with the Peace made in France The French Court shew their Reasons for it The Pope's Bull to the Inquisitors Several French Cardinals and Bishops cited to Rome And the Queen of Navarr also The French King declares against these Proceedings against the Queen of Navarr The Deposing of Princes and disposing of their Dominions the cause of great Calamities The Bishops defended by the King also The Queen complains of the Proceedings of the Council The Pope gained the Cardinal of Lorrain to his side Who went to Rome The Council has no Authority over Princes * Pag 721 The Ambassadors of France put a severer Protestation into the Council The Emperor opposeth the intended Proceedings of the Council against Queen Elizabeth The French Ambassadors leave Trent and go to Venice The last Session of the Council of Trent The censure of the Council The Emperor goes from Inspruck before the Council was ended His sense of the Council The Reasons why the Council had no better success The State of Religion in Piedmont A Tumult in Bavaria for the Cup. Reasons against granting Marriage to the Clergy And the Cup to the Laity The French Affairs after the Peace till the end of the Council The Siege of Havre de Grace The Protestants fight against the English Havre de Grace surrendred to the French. A Plague in London Charles the Ninth declared out of His Minority by the Parliament of Roan The Scotch Affairs in 1562. And 1563. John Hamilton Archbishop of St. Andrews committed for hearing Mass John Knox call'd before the Council for Sedition His bold Answer
the Opinions of all made a new Proposition and recapitulating what had been represented before that the Cause could not be finally determined then that there was present Danger threatned from the Turk in more Places than one and that much Time was already spent told them That he would referr the Matter wholly to the Council which both the Legate had put him in certain Hopes of and he himself would sollicite the Pope about He also promised to return into Germany and desired the Protestants that in the mean time they would not attempt any thing more than what had been agreed upon by the Divines Next he advised the Bishops and other Prelates to take such Courses in rectifying the Abuses of their several Churches as might prepare the Way for a publick Reformation All generally praised the Emperor's good Intentions and were of Opinion that the Pope's Legate also should seriously enjoin the Bishops to purge and reform their Churches The Protestants promised to behave themselves both as to the reconciled Doctrines and every thing else according to their Duty desiring that other Princes might have free Leave to propound those Doctrines in their own Churches also We have already told you that Eckius was sick both of the Book produced by the Emperor and of the Collocutors also When therefore after the Conference it was returned to the Emperor as has been mentioned and the Matter brought into Debate in the Assembly of the Princes He being ill of a Fever sent a Letter to the Princes to this effect That he had never liked that insipid Book wherein he found so many Errors and therefore ought not to be admitted for that the Use and Custom of the Fathers was therein slighted and the Phrase and Cant of Melancthon to be found in it all over That he had not seen the Book as it was corrected by his Collegues and afterwards delivered back to the Emperor but that only some of the Lutheran Doctrines had been read over to him as he lay sick That far less had he approved that Writing which was presented to the Emperor with the Book nor indeed had he ever seen it When this came to the Knowledge of Julius Pflug and John Gropper who thought their Reputation therein concerned they prayed the Presidents and Auditors of the Conference as being Witnesses of all the Proceedings that they would do them right and defend their good Name against the Calumnies of Eckius These inform the Emperor of the Matter who afterwards in a publick Paper gave a fair and honourable Character of both declaring that they had acted as it became good and honest Men. The Cause of Religion we told you before was referred to a general or provincial Council of Germany But when this came to the Knowledge of Contarini he sent a Letter to all the States dated the Twenty sixth of July desiring that the last might be dashed out and cancelled for that Controversies about Religion ought not to be determined by such Councils but that they belonged to the Decision of the universal Church That whatsoever also was determined privately by any one Nation in Matters of that nature was void and of no effect That so they would much gratify the Pope the Head of the Church and Council if they would omit that whereas it would be very troublesom unto him if they did otherwise for that it would give Occasion to more and far greater Scandals as well in other Provinces as chiefly in Germany And that this was the thing he had to acquaint them with from the Pope and in discharge of his own Duty The Princes made Answer the same Day That it lay in the Pope's Power to prevent any Scandals or Troubles upon that Account by calling of a Council which had now for so many Years been promised That if he did not call it and that speedily too the State of Germany was such that there was an absolute Necessity of taking some other Course to make up the Breaches of the Publick which could not subsist longer with Safety in so inveterate a Dissention That therefore they earnestly desired the Pope would apply some Remedy and that he himself according to his Prudence and Candor would promote the Matter The Protestant Divines also in a long Writing refute the Letter of Contarini proving it to belong to every particular Province to establish the true Religion and Worship of God. These Things done the Emperor made a Decree and caused it to be read on the Eight and twentieth of July wherein he referrs the Conference of the Doctors and the whole Affair to a Council to an Assembly either of all Germany or of the States of the Empire In his Progress into Italy he promises to intercede earnestly with the Pope for a Council and that if neither a general nor national Council could be obtained he assured them of an imperial Diet to be called within Eighteen Months for settling the Differences about Religion and that he would use his Endeavours to perswade the Pope to send a Legate to it The Protestants he commanded not to attempt any new thing besides the Articles accommodated and the Bishops also to reform the Vices and Abuses of their Churches There were other Heads in the Decree as Of not demolishing Religious Houses Of not misapplying Church Revenues Of not tampering with one another to make them change their Religion and Of the Jurisdiction and Members of the Imperial Chamber But the Protestants being somewhat dissatisfied with these things the Emperor in a private Paper told them separately what his Intentions therein were That he prescribed no Rule to them in the Points not as yet reconciled That he would not indeed have Religious Houses demolished but that the Monks and Friars should be brought to a pious Reformation That Church-men should in all Places be allowed to enjoy their yearly Revenues without any Respect to the Diversity of Religion That no Person of another Jurisdiction should be allured over to their Religion and much less be defended upon that account but that still they might admit of any Person who should willingly come over unto them Moreover that for Peace and Quietness Sake he suspended the Decree of Ausburg as far as it concerned Religion and all Processes that were doubtful whether they related to Religion or not in like manner all Proscriptions and namely that of Goslar until the Matter should be determined in some Council or Diet That no Man should be excluded from the Imperial Chamber for differing in Religion but that Justice should be indifferently administred to all When they had obtained this Grant from the Emperor under Hand and Seal they promised Assistance against the Turk of whose Approach there was fresh News daily brought besides there were Ambassadors come both from Hungary and Austria who earnestly begged for Aid wherefore there was a present Supply of Germans sent into Hungary under the Command of
the Demands of the Emperor and King Ferdinand After long and great Debate about the Matter on the Twentieth of June the Diet was dissolved But though it seemed to lie heavy upon the States of the Empire to be charged with double Aid yet because they thought that the Turkish War might be more successfully carried on if the domestick Enemy were first reduced to Duty they granted the Emperor a Six Months Subsidy for entertaining Four thousand Horse and Twenty four thousand Foot against the French King of which Money the Emperor allotted a part to his Brother King Ferdinand for fortifying the Places upon the Frontiers against the Turks And for the future Turkish War they imposed a Tax and Poll all over Germany that all without Exception should pay according to their Lands and Estates and for their Heads They enacted under severe Penalties that no Man should serve Foreigners especially the French King in their Wars and Power was granted to Punish such as should be found Transgressors herein Because the Difference about Religion could not be treated of during these warlike Occupations it was referred to the next Diet to be held in the Month of December The Emperor in the mean time promised to employ some learned and pious Men to draw up a Form of Reformation He entreated the Princes to do the like also that having compared all together in future Diets something might be agreed upon by common Consent to be observed till the meeting of a General Council to be held in Germany or until a National Synod of Germany That in the mean time all should live in Peace without making any Bustle or Stir for Difference in Religion and that the Churches every where of what Religion soever should enjoy their Rents and Revenues which should be applied to the Maintenance of the Ministers of publick Schools and the Poor That the Judges of the Imperial Chamber should retain their Places during the time that was prefix'd to them After the Expiration thereof that all should be indifferently admitted to that Bench without any respect to their Religion That the Edict of Ausburg and all Suits commenced against the Protestants upon account of their Religion and Profession as also the Proscription of the Cities of Goslar and Minden should be suspended till the next Treaty That the Anabapists should suffer the Punishments long since decreed against them That nevertheless the Magistrates should employ learned and pious Men to convince them of their Error and reclaim them This Decree was much disliked by the Catholicks who with all their Force opposed it But seeing the Bishops of Cologne and Munster sided with the Protestants and Cleve and Baden submitted all to the Emperor's Pleasure who after much debate made it appear That this was a middle and tolerable way for both they being much weakened in number condescended at last not indeed to assent to it but yet that they might not seem to prescribe Rules to the Emperor nor to derogate from his Power to tolerate the same and the Electors Palatine and Brandenburg had interceded to have the Decree pass in this manner The Protestants also desired that the Cause of the Duke of Brunswick might be comprehended in that Decree but that could not be obtained And the Emperor urged That either they would restore him or else put the Province into his Hands by Sequestration until the matter should be Tried He had treated about this with the Duke of Saxony and Lantgrave whilst they were present and much more with their Deputies after their Departure The Cities at first refused to contribute to the Subsidy against the French because of Intercourse and Trade But when the Princes assented to it and the French King's Cause seemed Odious to all they also subscribed though much against their Wills especially they who bordered upon France The Deputies of Lunenburg and Wirtemberg refused also but they were privately admonished and with harsh words too that they alone should not put a stop to the Resolutions of the rest When the Lantgrave upon his Return Home went to take leave of the Emperor he was most graciously received his Imperial Majesty telling him That he would not now make use of him against the French King on purpose not to expose him to hatred but that so soon as that War was over he designed to march against the Turk and that then he would make him his Lieutenant General and commit the whole management of the War to his Care And when he modestly and humbly excused himself as unfit for such a Charge You have done good Service ere now saith the Emperor both for your self and others and I make no doubt but you can render me good Services too and with these words most courteously dismissed him so that he having acquainted some of his familiar Friends with what had pass'd betwixt them returned Home full of Hopes and Joy that the Emperor was so Favourable unto him As to the Business of the Sequestration after the matter had been long canvassed and disputed it was agreed upon at length That all the Country of Brunswick should be put into the Emperor's Hands as chief Magistrate until the Controversie were either friendly taken up or fairly tried and determined by Law And that the Emperor should commit the Government of the Country either to the Prince Palatine or the Elector of Brandenburg or else to Duke Maurice or the Duke of Cleve that they that did not obey should incurr the penalty of the breach of the publick Peace That the Emperor should command Henry Duke of Brunswick to obey or else to punish him according to Law. The Emperor at length proposed these Conditions and persisted in that and the Protestants ratified them afterwards as you shall hear in the proper place After the Conclusion of the Diet the Emperor went from Spire to Metz. Now all his Army had Mustered in Lorrain upon the Borders of France and about the latter end of May had taken Luxenburg upon Surrender In this War Duke Maurice of Saxony and Marquess Albert of Brandenburg served the Emperor with a Thousand Horse a piece also Count William of Furstemburg an Officer of Foot and Sebastian Scherteline all Protestants Whilst the Emperor was at Metz Hubert Count Bichling a German that served the French was taken in Lorrain and brought to Metz. He was there condemned to lose his Head and his Wife who came thither and fell at the Emperor's Feet could not prevail for his Pardon so that all things were prepared for his Execution But at length Maximilian King Ferdinand's Son whom the Emperor had lately received into his Court being sollicited used his Interest with the Emperor and at last saved his Life In the mean time Babarossa either because his Affairs so required or that he was perswaded by the French King or else that he feared the King might make Peace with the Emperor returned Home and Landing made